Ariadne's Thread
by JolinarJackson
Summary: An accident in the archives lands Torchwood agents Jack and Gwen in an alternate dimension, where they unexpectedly meet the Warehouse 13 agents Artie and Claudia, swept away by an artefact as well. To survive, the two organisations need to join forces: Ianto and Rhys travel to South Dakota while the castaways try to outrun a deadly enemy.
1. Chapter 1

**Ariadne's Thread**

_Word Count: _~ 31.000

_Summary: _An accident in the archives lands Torchwood agents Jack and Gwen in an alternate dimension, where they unexpectedly meet the Warehouse 13 agents Artie and Claudia, swept away by an artefact as well. To survive, the two organisations need to join forces: Ianto and Rhys travel to South Dakota while the castaways try to outrun a deadly enemy.

_Characters: _Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Claudia Donovan, Arthur Nielsen, Ianto Jones, Steve Jinks, Rhys Williams, Myka Bering, Pete Lattimer, Leena, Mrs. Frederick, Trailer, OCs

_Pairing: _Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Pete/Kelly Hernandez (hinted), Artie/Vanessa Calder (hinted)

_Rating: _PG-13

_Spoiler: Something Borrowed, Exit Wounds _/ Doctor Who: _The Sound Of Drums_

_Setting: _after _Exit Wounds_

_Crossover: _Warehouse 13

_Crossover-Setting: _after _Lovesick _

_Crossover-Spoilers: The New Guy, Lovesick_

_Warnings: _Mention of canon character deaths, language

_Contains: _Canon slash

_Author's Note: _This is quite literally a product of a dream I had. And then I thought that those two shows wouldn't make a bad match. And so, this happened.

_Beta: _larsinger29 and EmrysofWriting, thank you. :)

_Disclaimer: _I'm not making money with this fanfic. The tv-shows _Torchwood_ and _Warehouse 13 _and the characters appearing within it belong to their producers and creators. Any similarities to living or dead persons are purely coincidental and not intended.

xxx

**Prologue**

_Cardiff, Wales:_

Entering the Torchwood Hub was like entering a different world. It always gave Gwen a thrill. Through the slightly shabby tourist office, down a dimly light corridor into a lift, and from there through the giant cogwheel door into the cavernous base stretching several levels and miles beneath Roald Dahl Plass. Gwen had spent all her life in and around Cardiff but she'd never even dreamed of a secret base beneath the Bay. Even after about two years working for Torchwood, she was still in awe. And today, she could once again share that awe with Rhys. They stood there, taking in the main Hub with the working stations, the corridors veering off into other parts of the base and – most of all – the sculpture towering in the middle of the room, stretching up towards the Plass and emerging there as a well-known landmark. Today, water was trickling down the mirrored surface, splashing into the basin that was bridged by several metal grating walkways.

Gwen loved this place. She knew that she'd been born to work here. Nevertheless, the shadows seemed just a bit darker these days, the absence of anyone in the main room just a bit more noticeable. It had only been days since they'd lost Tosh and Owen, since a team of five – tight like family – had been reduced to a team of three. Gwen squeezed Rhys's hand a little tighter, seeking reassurance.

He smiled at her, his blue eyes showing that he understood. He'd barely known Tosh and Owen but still, their loss seemed to have cut deep for him as well. He looked around again. "How old is this place anyway?" he asked, taking in the walls that were a wild collage of tiles, brick stone and concrete.

"Victorian times," Gwen answered, "give or take a few years. Torchwood was founded 1879."

Rhys rolled his eyes. "Alright. Your job _is_ cooler than mine."

Gwen grinned and kissed him. "And don't you forget it."

He pulled her closer and Gwen put her arms around his neck, looking at him. Meeting him really had been one of the best things that had ever happened to her. He'd stood by her through everything, especially regarding Torchwood: late nights, secret missions, his accidental discovery of what her job really entailed … and he'd stayed. He'd even married her. And now, he wasn't just a rock in her private life, someone to come home to when hunting aliens and fighting threats against Earth became too much to bear … he was becoming a support in her job as well. If she hadn't had him after the bombs had gone off a few days ago, after Tosh and Owen had saved the city and paid the price … she didn't know if she would have made it through.

They kissed again, deeper this time, until they were interrupted by a loud voice booming through the room, "What's this? 'Bring your husband to work' day?"

They looked up towards the first level, where Jack Harkness was leaning on the railing of the walkway between the hothouse and the now darkened room that used to be Owen's lab. Out of the corner of her eye, Gwen noticed that Rhys straightened and puffed out his chest a little. A reaction she was used to and chose to ignore. Even though they were married, Jack with his good looks and natural charisma intimidated Rhys to no end. Jack straightened and crossed his arms over his blue dress shirt, taking on his well-known 'boss pose'. Gwen noticed that his braces were hanging down his hips and raised an eyebrow. "Did we interrupt something?"

Jack shook his head. "Not that I know of. Ianto?"

Gwen now noticed movement in the kitchen niche near the basin, and then Ianto stepped forward, craning his neck around to look up at Jack. "Jack?"

"Did they interrupt something?"

Ianto straightened his always immaculate suit and shook his head. "No." He looked at Gwen and his boyish face showed a small grin. "You might have, though, if you'd turned up half an hour earlier."

Gwen smiled and shook her head. "I don't even want to know."

Jack leered at Ianto. "Naked hide and seek. Always fun." Then he clapped his hands. "But now that you're here," he pulled up his braces, settling them on his broad shoulders, "let's start working." He came down the winding stairs.

Gwen took Rhys's hand. "Boardroom?"

"Yes. Ianto bought breakfast."

Gwen pulled Rhys towards the corridor leading down to the boardroom but she couldn't resist a last peek back. She caught Jack lean in and plant a gentle kiss on Ianto's lips, whispering something. Ianto smiled up at him and nodded, entwining his fingers with Jack's for a moment. The two of them seemed to have become closer. Gwen was happy for them but she sometimes wondered about the price Jack would pay for that when Ianto would die. And he would, just like Gwen. Torchwood Agents didn't grow old. The job just didn't allow it. Jack was only still here because he wouldn't stay dead. Sometimes, Gwen knew, he saw that as a blessing. Other times, he'd confided, he felt it was a curse, because he would lose them one day. Like so many others before.

xxx

_Univille, South Dakota (USA):_

Steve Jinks sighed tiredly and turned off the engine of his car. _Leena's Bed & Breakfast_ now provided the only light: porch lamps that dipped the rural house into a soft glow. The house was a picture perfect getaway for clichéd romantic trips but there weren't a lot of those happening in the wasteland of South Dakota, so Steve and his colleagues were the only ones living there. Normally, it represented the end of a stressful day and some peace and quiet – things Steve had quickly learned to appreciate after he'd started his job at Warehouse 13 just a few weeks ago – but this night, it loomed over him threateningly.

He sighed again – this time it was a sound of frustration. It felt right coming back here, calling this place home, but … he shook his head. So his self-confidence had taken a bit of a blow lately. He knew he shouldn't take the jokes the team threw his way so personally. He was the newbie, it was only natural for them to need some time to get used to him. Nevertheless … he wished he would have less of a problem fitting in.

The Warehouse was a dream job come true. He was doing something special, chasing down dangerous artefacts and storing them in a facility where they couldn't harm anyone. The supernatural was his day job – pens that made true what you wrote down with them, a telegraph that made people go mad with paranoia, a kettle that fulfilled every wish you made (and those it couldn't fulfil at least gave you a consolation prize: a ferret). His life was straight out of a television show and yet, he wasn't entirely happy. He felt like an outsider sometimes. It wasn't a new feeling. Being able to tell when people lied was a curse, really. He was always scared to realize that they were just humouring him or letting him tag along because they had to. At least with Pete and Myka, he felt that way. Artie was generally a loner himself. Claudia was the only friend he had on the team at the moment but she was friends with Pete and Myka, too, and since that very strange day when those two had frozen and bronzed him for a little while, Steve couldn't quite say what they thought of him. Sure, they'd been under the influence of an artefact that made them drunk but he couldn't help but feel that the artefact had only lowered their inhibitions to a point where they'd acted on their feelings for him.

He shook his head and got out of the car. It was no use to dwell on it. He would just have to suck it up and wait for them to get used to him. It had been the same at the ATF and he'd survived. He hadn't had any friends there … but he'd survived. He would be fine.

He unlocked the front door and slid it shut softly. It was almost two in the morning and everybody would be asleep in their rooms. Driving through Univille had felt strange. Being a very small town in the middle of nowhere, nobody had been out on the main street that led through it, the houses and shops had been dark, even the street lamps switched off. Steve had felt like he was driving through a ghost town.

The B&B was quiet and dark. Steve let his memory lead him towards the wide stairwell leading to the rooms upstairs.

Suddenly, a lamp was switched on and he blinked, momentarily blinded, before he saw Claudia sitting in one of the comfy armchairs adorning the entrance hall, wearing a fluffy white bathrobe provided by the B&B. She raised one eyebrow. "And where are you coming from, young man?"

"Young man?" Steve echoed with a snort. He was older than Claudia, not by much, but still.

She just raised the other eyebrow as well. "It's way past your bedtime."

"It's way past yours as well."

She got up and pushed her hands into the bathrobe's pockets. When she stepped closer, Steve could see that beneath the teasing tone of her voice, there was worry simmering in her green eyes. "Where've you been?"

"Out."

"Painting the town red?"

"You could say that."

"Are we talking about Univille?"

Steve snorted again and pushed his hands in his jeans pockets. "Univille's got one street, Claudia. There's one bar and it closes at ten. And it's not exactly the kind of place I hang out at when I go out."

Claudia's eyes widened. "Were you in a gay bar? Why couldn't I come with you?" She looked put out and on the verge of a pout.

Steve rolled his eyes. "I needed to go alone."

"Where've you been then? We're in the middle of nowhere."

"Rapid City."

"That's over an hour away."

"Believe me, it wasn't worth it."

"That's 'cause you didn't take me with you."

"Drop it."

The pout emerged full force. "Alright. Now that I'm not worried to death for you, I can go catch some zee's."

"You do that."

She started up the stairs, turned around once more. "Next time, leave a note."

"Yes, mom."

She grinned at him and he caught himself smiling back. Then he headed upstairs himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**1.**

"We need to get the archives sorted," Jack said with his mouth full of roll. Gwen pulled a disgusted face. Jack was charming, handsome and generally a gentleman … but he had no table manners. And if Ianto was to be believed, his manners in bed were even worse. Even though Ianto also always had that Cheshire Cat grin on his face when he made hints like that. Jack must be a fantastic lover – manners or not. "The bombs caused some minor tremors ..." Jack paused for a second, maybe caught in a sudden memory of Tosh and Owen, then he went on, "... and the shelves – well I think some of them were standing there way past what their extended warranty covered. They collapsed. It's a mess down there."

Rhys leaned back in his chair. "It's the archives. Aren't archives always a mess?"

Ianto's look should have dropped him dead. "Not _my_ archives."

Rhys raised his hands in defence.

Gwen asked, "So that's what we do today? Sort out the archives?"

Jack nodded. "Yes. And we should make use of Rhys being here. We go in teams of two – Gwen and me, Rhys and Ianto. We start by sorting through the artefacts, see if something's broken."

Rhys looked at Gwen. "Very exciting job," he said sarcastically.

"Oi!" Gwen smacked his arm.

xxx

Rhys didn't like the archives. They were lit by harsh-lighted bulbs, moist in some corners and smelled of moss and paper that was decades old. The rows of shelves held all the proof he would ever need to know that Cardiff wasn't just any normal city. And the main room, where he worked with Ianto, was huge, full of threatening shadows. What if something had escaped during the explosions that had rocked the city? What if it was waiting for them down here?

Hastily, he distracted himself by picking up one of the cardboard boxes that had fallen from the shelves. He saw heavy crates lying on the floor further back in the room, buried under the shelves that had once held them. His eyes found Ianto who was busy checking a device that looked like an iron but could in fact be some kind of weapon. "How are you doing?" Rhys asked, just for the sake of making a noise in this too quiet room.

Ianto looked at him for a second, then carefully placed the device back in the little crate it had been stored in, taking care that it was surrounded by filling material before closing the lid. "Fine."

"I mean ..." Rhys faltered, unsure how to voice his concern. Ianto was a closed-off one. Rhys was never sure how to approach him. He didn't carry his heart on his sleeve and his face never gave away his feelings. The first and last time he'd seen him anywhere close to sadness had been during Toshiko's funeral. It had also been one of the rare times he and Jack engaged in public displays of affection. Ianto had clutched Jack's hand and turned to hide his face against Jack's shoulder – just for a few seconds. Jack had cried openly. He was easier, in a way, carrying his emotions around like badges. Not only the good ones, either – the flirting with Ianto or Gwen, the casual touches he bestowed on them, the laughter and grins – but also his negative ones. Gwen had told Rhys once that Jack sometimes scared her. _"It's like he doesn't care, he can be so cruel. And I don't know how he does it because I know that he's probably the one caring the most."_

Somehow, even though they were so different or maybe because of it, the relationship between Jack and Ianto worked. They kept it between themselves most of the time, professional during working hours and private after, but whenever they met up, it was obvious that they loved each other without them exchanging grand gestures.

Ianto's voice pulled him back to the present. "I know what you mean."

Rhys swallowed. "I'm really sorry for your loss."

"You already said that – this is the third time in fact – but thank you."

"I'm just glad …" He paused and Ianto looked as if he didn't want to have this conversation. Rhys went on regardless. "I'm just glad that it wasn't Gwen who … died. This sounds so mean but …"

"It's understandable that you're relieved, Rhys. Don't worry." Ianto gave him a small smile that lacked any real emotion.

Rhys nodded. "You must be as well. With Jack still here."

"He died." Ianto's smile turned sad. "He went through a lot and died. Only he got up again."

"Must be reassuring, having an immortal lover." Rhys had intended for it to be light-hearted, but halfway through the sentence, he realized that it was anything but.

"Not really." Ianto shook his head. "Sometimes I think … it should have been me. Instead of Tosh. Instead of Owen." His eyes got a far-away look. "Should have been me." He sighed.

Carefully, Rhys replied, "Jack would grieve."

"Jack would get over it." Ianto met Rhys's eyes. "That's what life's about. Getting over grief. He lost lovers before. He will lose me." He left Rhys standing there, wishing he'd never asked.

xxx

All rooms of the Torchwood archives had been hit by the tremors but this one was in a worse state than the others. Gwen sighed deeply, taking in the crates, boxes and alien artefacts littering the concrete floor, pushed out of their proper places in the shelves. The room was small, there was only one lamp hanging from the ceiling and the light was flickering. "This is a mess," Gwen said quietly.

"It is," Jack replied with a nod, his hands on his hips. He was wearing his vintage military coat and Gwen wished she would have thought of her leather jacket to wear over her thin t-shirt. It was rather chilly down here. She figured she could always ask Jack to borrow his coat if she got too cold. After all, he was a man who loved to dress like he was living in the 40s – hadn't the men been chivalrous back then? Sometimes she wondered if he missed that decade and was still dressing like that because of that. Or maybe he did it because he looked plain gorgeous in it. He grinned brightly at her. "We'll get it cleaned up, though. As good as new."

"I wasn't just talking about the archives," Gwen replied. She sighed and picked up the first thing she could reach. It was a statue made of some kind of metal. On a base, two horns like those from a bull were sitting. "This looks like it belongs into a museum, not here."

Jack nodded and took a closer look at the statue. "I remember those. I collected them ..." He thought back. "Must have been 1974. People vanished in a museum and there were strange readings coming up on UNIT's radar. They investigated it, couldn't find a thing, and called us in when it happened again and again. We determined that the horns were causing it, so we took them in. They gathered dust until Tosh took an interest a few years ago. Better diagnostic devices than forty years ago mixed with Tosh's genius and – bang! – we knew what had been going on back then." He made her wait for it with an excited smile and she didn't have the heart to disappoint him, staring at him eagerly. He stepped closer and pointed at the horns. "These things send people into another dimension. I had never seen one of these before or I would have known sooner, but I heard about them when I was younger. They were used for entertainment."

"Entertainment?" Gwen asked. "How?"

"You have the telly; some alien species have the horns. The dimension created by them is artificial. They fill it with something dangerous and a few contestants and then they watch what happens."

Gwen stared at him. "A game show?"

"_Wipe Out_," Jack said with a nod, "'til death."

Gwen gulped and stared at the horns. "The people who vanished back then ..."

"No idea what happened to them. Maybe we'll find out one day."

Gwen wrapped her fingers around one of the horns, stroking the material. "It's like steel."

Jack reached out a hand, touching the other horn. "Probably is. There are many planets that ..." He stopped.

"What?"

Jack's other hand touched the horn as well, his face focused and tense. "It's warming up."

Gwen looked at the horns when a low humming noise started to sound. Jack grabbed the horns from her and set them on a nearby shelf. "Oh, no." He tapped his comm link and stepped back, pulling Gwen with him. "Ianto, the horns activated." A blinding light encompassed them and they were stumbling through the mess on the floor by now, trying to reach the door. Gwen heard Jack yell, "1974, 2006, Toshiko!"

And then everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

**2.**

Claudia sighed deeply and pushed the protective glasses up for a moment to rub her tired eyes. "Who would have guessed that Warehouse 2 was able to fit so many artefacts into it?" She looked around herself, taking in all the crates piled up around her and Artie. The decontamination tent they'd erected in Warehouse 13 for the artefacts that had been transferred from the recently re-discovered and now lost again Warehouse 2 was engulfed in a purple light that kept the artefacts under control. It hurt Claudia's eyes even though she was wearing the glasses. Maybe she'd spent too much time in here, but there were just so many things to categorize and pack away.

Artie didn't seem bothered by the light at all, but then again, he'd worked in the Warehouse for a very long time. And spent too much of it behind a desk, Claudia reckoned. She'd been trying to get him into a gym for weeks, just to lose a bit of weight. She was sure that Doctor Vanessa would appreciate it. They were ever so tentatively dating – at snail's pace. Claudia just wanted to move things a little faster. Maybe a relationship – even one over a big distance – would make Artie less grumpy.

Artie looked up from the little box in his hand and showed her a rare smile. One that told her he was fascinated with an artefact.

He held the box so that Claudia could see two beautiful golden earrings in it that were decorated with something that seemed to be jade. Questioningly, Claudia looked up at Artie again.

"Cleopatra's earrings," he said.

Claudia's eyes widened. "Awesome! What do they do?" She reached out a hand touched the earrings carefully, secure in the knowledge that the purple latex gloves would protect her from any negative effects.

Artie scratched at his beard with one hand, a thoughtful gesture. "Wear them and you will be perceived as the most beautiful woman by everyone ..."

"Cool!"

"... but yourself. You will end up full of self-loathing and commit suicide." He snapped the box shut, almost hitting her fingers.

Claudia's face fell. "Right. I'll stay away from those then."

Artie shook his head and set the box down on a nearby crate. "You don't need them." He pulled a pen out of the pocket of his vest and grabbed his clipboard, starting to fill out a form for the earrings.

"Aw, that's sweet," Claudia said, "and kinda creepy coming from you, old man." Artie rolled his eyes and turned away. Claudia grabbed the crowbar and went to a crate, prising it open carefully. "The last one before lunch break," she said and peeked inside. While she dug through the stuffing to find the hidden artefacts, she said, "So I'm thinking about getting Steve a boyfriend."

She heard a long-suffering sigh from Artie. "How come you're always ready to meddle in other people's lives?"

She turned around to him. "Hello? Because that's what normal people do? You wouldn't know that, of course. When you grew up, they still exchanged goats for women and called that love."

Artie stared at her in disapproval. "Devil child."

The nickname sounded affectionate coming from him and Claudia smiled. Her hand brushed something and she pulled it out. It was a wooden case the size of a shoe box. She opened it curiously. "Well, that's kind of disappointing."

"What have you got?" Artie asked.

Claudia took the ball of red string out of the box. "Now I can knit you a scarf for Christmas."

Artie's eyes widened. "Oh my God! They really had it!" He grabbed the string out of Claudia's hands, staring at it in awe.

His reaction made her curious. "What is it?"

"This," Artie held the string up, "is Ariadne's thread."

Claudia looked at it, then at Artie, clueless. "What is it?"

Artie sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You children don't get any education anymore."

"Sorry, spent my youth in an institution and in foster families. History wasn't really my priority."

"Mythology," Artie corrected her.

"Whatever."

"This is the thread that Ariadne gave to Theseus so he would be able to find his way out of the maze after killing the Minotaur."

That sounded vaguely familiar. "What does the thread do?"

Artie shook his head. "I don't know."

Claudia checked the box and found some sheets of papyrus on the bottom. She carefully got them out, staring at the hieroglyphs in confusion before handing the papyrus to Artie. "Paperwork."

He squinted down at them. "Opens doors." He didn't say anything else.

"That's it?"

"Apparently."

"Huh."

They looked at the thread for a few seconds longer, and then Artie said, "I know the perfect place for this," and hurried out of the tent. Claudia followed him.

Sometimes, Claudia wondered how much time Artie had spent just wandering around the Warehouse and memorizing its contents and their placement. It was downright creepy how well he knew the place. He could always tell which shelves still had some space for more artefacts and which were full, where they were located and what the artefacts did, even though the cavernous room held thousands of artefacts and was crammed full with hundreds of shelves.

He stopped in an aisle not far from the tent and activated the display screen for an empty space in the shelf. He typed in _Ariadne's Thread_ and filled out a quick questionnaire that he would probably complete later. Then he carefully set the string down on the shelf and smiled fondly.

A voice echoed through the huge room. "Claudia? Artie?" Steve. Apparently calling from the tent.

Claudia smiled and answered loudly, "We're here!" Artie grimaced when she added, "We've found something rather boring!"

Artie raised a hand. "Stop that screeching, will you?"

"Screeching?" Claudia echoed in mock shock. "Just five minutes ago, I was pretty."

"And beauty is best appreciated in complete silence."

Claudia rolled her eyes and turned away to look for Steve coming around the corner.

"Oh!" Artie said behind her.

Irritated, Claudia asked, "What now?"

"Uh-oh."

Claudia whirled around, her eyes wide. "You only ever say that when something bad is about to happen." She followed his stare to the ball of string. It looked like it … pulsated, a soft glow emanating from it. "Should I find that awesome or worrisome?"

Artie took a deep breath. "There's a neutraliser station ..."

Then everything went dark.

xxx

When light filtered back into the world, it came slowly and remained dim. Claudia half expected to be missing body parts or something equally unnerving, but she seemed to be fine. She looked around. She was standing in the aisle, Ariadne's thread on the shelf, not pulsating any more, and Artie was still standing next to her, looking around quizzically as well. Claudia took in the shelf units and long aisles and sighed in relief. "It's the Warehouse."

"And yet, it's not," Artie replied.

Claudia had to agree. The lights were dimmed, the only display screen that was working was the one for the ball of string. The others she could see didn't show anything and the shelves were crammed full with crates that looked exactly the same. While crates were normal around here, they differed in size and most artefacts were stored without any kind of packaging. Like this, the shelves formed solid walls. For a bizarre moment, Claudia felt like she had stepped into a computer game version of the Warehouse, simplified and boring, but she shook that thought off. She looked at the thread. "It activated. You were wearing gloves, though."

Artie held up his hands, the purple gloves seeming bright in the dim light and against his dark clothes. "I have no clue how this happened. Believe me, I'm mystified."

"Never a good sign. Let's check out the office. See if the others are here, too," Claudia suggested.

"Steve!" Artie exclaimed suddenly.

Claudia's eyes widened. "Steve!" she called out and ran back towards the tent. She didn't meet him on her way, noting absent-mindedly that all the aisles and shelves looked exactly the same. Even worse: when she arrived at where the tent had been, she froze. "Artie!" she called, staring at the empty space. "It's gone!"

He was just turning the last corner, a bit out of breath. He froze when he saw the tent was missing. Claudia looked at him questioningly but he just shrugged, looking almost helpless.

"Steve!" Claudia called again, deeply worried now, but there was no answer.

Artie reached her. "The office."

Claudia nodded. While they walked there, Claudia looked around. It was almost creepy how very identical everything looked, but still so different. Almost soulless. Normally, the artefacts in the Warehouse were giving off some sort of energy, like they had a life of their own. It was all gone now, leaving the place bleak and quiet. Subconsciously, she started to walk closer to Artie who seemed to be the only other living thing in here.

When they reached the office, they stopped abruptly. The stairs usually leading up to the balcony that separated the office from the Warehouse were gone, leaving the balcony an enclosed space. Claudia looked at Artie. "Is there another way up?"

"No."

"So we're trapped down here?" Claudia asked and sighed. "Great."

xxx

Walking around the Warehouse was quite exhausting. Artie was relentless, checking one emergency exit after another and finding them all gone. Another question was where they actually were. There were no computers, no hints as to what exactly could have happened. Claudia started to worry about ever getting back.

She stretched and rolled her eyes while Artie pressed his hands against the wall of the Warehouse, muttering to himself about yet another emergency exit gone. She crossed her arms and leaned back against the shelf behind her. "Are you sure it was here?"

"Of course I'm sure," Artie answered gruffly.

"Well, it's not here now and all the other emergency exits seem to have vanished as well given this is our fifth failed try. Maybe we should face the possibility that we're kind of trapped here and look for another way out."

"That's what we're doing," Artie reminded her.

"Yeah, your way. And your way sucks, so let's do it my way."

Artie turned back to the wall and started examining it again. Claudia pouted and turned to the shelf. There was one thing she'd been wondering about since they'd landed here ... she pulled one of the crates out of the shelf. Then she dug a pair of purple gloves out of her jeans and snapped them on. Humming softly to herself, she pushed open the lid, intending to look at the printed index card they kept with every artefact in case there was something wrong with the display screens. She froze, and then she hastily pulled out the next crate and opened it, then the next and the next …

"What are you doing?" Artie asked her, clearly irritated by the noise her frantic search was causing.

"They're empty."

Artie looked into the crates in disbelief. "They shouldn't be. This aisle is … they shouldn't be."

"We should have expected it," Claudia muttered and brushed a hand through her short hair. "Alright. I think we're not in Kansas anymore. That explains why the emergency exits are gone as well." She got up on the tip of her toes, cursed softly, and then climbed up on a shelf.

"Claudia," Artie said, worried.

"Relax, Toto. I've climbed in and out of enough windows to know what I'm doing." She reached the top and grimaced. "You know, you could dust up here every now and then." She got to her feet and looked out over the forest of shelves towards where usually a huge pyramid was standing in the middle of the room. It was gone. As was the windmill and the Zeppelin. Claudia swallowed and carefully climbed down again. "Artie," she asked, "what's going on here?"

At that moment, a deep sound echoed through the Warehouse. A sound Claudia had never heard before. Instinctively, she crowded closer to Artie and he put an arm around her shoulders.

"Sounded like a growl," she whispered.

He nodded. "We're definitely not in Kansas anymore."


	4. Chapter 4

**3.**

Steve wasn't sure if he should be worried. He climbed the stairs leading to the balcony outside the office and looked back out over the endless rows of shelves of filling the Warehouse. He could see the pyramid they kept here, as well as a Zeppelin floating in the air and there, just around the corner, the football field, but no sign of Artie or Claudia. Claudia had answered him about half an hour ago, though, when he'd called. And then he'd taken the turn, expecting to see her and there was no one there. Either something had happened or Claudia and Artie had played a prank on him, but he didn't think so. Artie was grumpy on his best days and didn't approve of childish games during working hours (or in general) and Claudia wouldn't have done that. At least he didn't think so.

He heard laughter coming from the office that was loud enough to penetrate the door and entered. The office was pretty much the heart of the Warehouse and also the place where they spent their free time during working hours. It was divided into a working place at the front where the windows overlooked the Warehouse and a cosier part at the back towards the door leading outside. Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering were in that part of the room. Pete was lounging in a comfy chair at the round table in a corner, looking for all the world like he had a day off. Myka on the other hand was wearing one of her trouser suits and a blouse and had her wild, dark hair tied back into a ponytail. She was sitting in another chair, one leg folded over the other and her arms crossed.

They both stopped laughing when they noticed him. Steve swallowed. Insecurities threatened to choke him. He forced a smile, though, and closed the door. "Hey, guys. What's going on?"

Myka smiled. "Nothing."

Pete shrugged. They looked at each other and giggled.

Steve didn't need his gift to know one thing. "Okay," he said, putting his hands on his hips, "you're lying."

With a flourish of his hands, Pete announced, "The human lie detector, ladies and gentlemen!"

Steve narrowed his eyes, annoyed now. "Right. Did anybody see Claudia or Artie?"

"No," Myka answered. The truth.

Pete buried one hand in his dark hair and managed to look even more relaxed than before. "They were down there unpacking Warehouse 2."

Steve raised an eyebrow. "They're not down there now. I called for them and Claudia answered but I couldn't find them. Should we be worried?"

Myka frowned. Good, at least one of them was taking him a bit seriously. "I don't think so. We've got sensors monitoring artefact activity. Nothing beeped."

"Do you know how to work these systems?" Steve asked.

Myka shrugged and admitted, "Artie and Claudia are the tech geniuses."

Pete got up and walked over to one of the flat screens. "Can't be so hard to check. I mean, I managed to install my iPod, this can't be worse than that."

"I had my iPod installed in five minutes," Myka replied.

Steve held up a hand. "Three."

Pete rolled his eyes and poked the ancient keyboard that looked like it had been made from a typewriter. Then he wriggled his fingers and pressed a few buttons, rearing back in shock when the computers protested – loudly. "It wasn't me! I swear."

Myka hurried over and slapped his arm. "Just … stop touching it." She looked back at Steve. "But honestly, we shouldn't be worried. You can get turned around down there easily. I'm sure they're there, you just took the wrong turn."

"Yeah," Pete replied, "once, we didn't see Artie for three days. We were frantic and then he just walked back in as if nothing had happened and told us that he was doing inventory on the other end of the Warehouse." He clapped Steve on the shoulder. "Plus, I'm not getting any vibes."

Steve sighed. Pete's vibes had more than once proven to be the perfect alarm system. He knew he could trust them. He just couldn't drop the feeling of something being wrong.

xxx

Rhys followed Ianto through the corridor into the main Hub. The bright lights blinded him for a moment, his eyes so used to the dimly lit archives and corridors, and he squinted at Ianto who was headed for one of the desks with several computer monitors. "What happened?" he asked. "I didn't understand half of what you were saying on our way here."

Ianto dropped into the chair and pulled up the CCTV for the archives on one monitor, then he used the three remaining ones to pull up several other programs Rhys didn't understand the least of. Ianto's gaze was focused on the monitors, his expression that of a man hoping for the best and expecting the worst. "I don't know what exactly happened but we're going to find out."

Rhys watched him type _1974_ and _2006_ into a search engine, then Ianto pointed at the screen. "CCTV." There were Jack and Gwen, sorting through artefacts. Then they suddenly reared back, startled, and vanished. Ianto turned to the search engine. It was still running. He pulled up another program. "I'm checking our scanners and archives to see what I can find out."

Rhys put his hands on his hips. He felt a bit useless just standing around while Ianto worked at lightning speed. "Sounded more complicated when you said it a minute ago."

Ianto smiled wryly without looking away from the screen. "Sorry. Look, we had a massive energy surge in the archives. The transport kind of energy surge." He frowned. "Can't trace it." He paused for a moment, as if running through ideas in his head. "Jack had his mobile with him."

"Gwen, too," Rhys said, finally feeling like he could help.

"I'll put a trace on them." While he did, the search engine called for his attention. Ianto finished the trace and turned to the search engine, reporting, "Several files have been created in 1974 and edited in 2006." He skimmed the list. "Only one of them from Tosh." He opened it. Rhys didn't try to read it. Ianto was faster and he would be able to explain it to him. So he resorted to nervous pacing.

After a minute, Ianto said, "Okay. The summary sounds bad." He looked at Rhys. "Seems like they've been hit by a transdimensional transporter."

"A what?"

"They were transported into another dimension. They could still be here, right next to us, but we can't see them and they can't see us, because they're out of phase of this dimension."

Rhys stared at him. "What?!"

He gave Ianto credit for not sounding like a father talking down to his son. "Imagine reality made of several layers and the two of us are between two of those. Jack and Gwen are between two others."

Rhys thought that sounded vaguely familiar. Maybe he'd heard about it through old _Star Trek_ re-runs. "They're in a parallel world?"

"No. In another dimension."

"Here, but not here."

"Exactly."

Rhys stared at Ianto. "So … what do we do about it?"

"Let me read the file, let the programs trace their mobiles and then we'll see."

xxx

The B&B's kitchen was spacious, but cosy, like the rest of the place. The team rarely entered it. It was Leena's realm where she prepared meals and snacks for everyone. Steve had only been in here once, when Leena had shown him around the house. Back then, it had been tidy. When he entered now, the scent of a meal simmering on the stove made his stomach growl and the orderly chaos of a well-practised cook reigned. Leena was standing at the counter underneath the window, cutting vegetables. The flowery pattern of her top matched the homey atmosphere of the room. Sunlight caught in her long, curly hair and painted patterns on her dark smooth skin.

Steve cleared his throat and she looked up at him. "Hi," she said with a warm smile, then immediately frowned. "What's wrong?"

"How do you know-"

"Your aura's off," Leena explained and stepped closer, narrowing her dark eyes as if she was trying to focus on something that wasn't really there. Her gift to read a person's aura unsettled Steve a bit. Especially since she'd told him in private that she was worried about his. "I mean, your aura's always a bit dark. But this ..."

Steve nodded. He'd come to her because he was worried and thought that she would be the most likely one to listen to him.

"What happened?" Leena asked.

"I can't find Claudia or Artie. Pete and Myka say it's nothing to worry about but ..."

"... you're worried." She frowned. "You're saying there's nothing going on at the Warehouse?"

"No. It's quiet. No artefact retrievals, no pings at all."

"Then I'm worried, too."

Steve frowned. "How come?"

"It's Tuesday. On Tuesday, when there are no pings or other things going on at the Warehouse, Claudia talks to her brother Joshua. He called, but since she wasn't here, I assumed that you had to work. She would never just miss a call without a grave reason. Not from him."

"So you agree that something's wrong?"

"I agree that something's not quite right."

Steve smiled a bit. Leena was always diplomatic, rarely taking sides. Kind of like a mother to all of them.

The entrance door fell shut and then Myka and Pete entered the kitchen. Seeing Steve and Leena's earnest faces, they paused. Myka asked, "What's going on?"

"Steve tells me that he can't find Claudia and Artie," Leena answered.

Myka frowned. "Yes, but they're probably just working-"

"Claudia missed Joshua's call," Leena interrupted her.

Myka crossed her arms and exchanged a look with Pete. "Okay, that's weird."

"Yeah," Pete agreed.

Leena sighed. "When did you last see them?"

Myka answered, "For breakfast. Then they went off to go through Warehouse 2's stuff and Pete and I had paperwork to catch up on."

Steve added, "I spent the morning reading the rest of the handbook. Claudia and I were supposed to have lunch but she didn't show."

"So you're saying that nobody has seen them since breakfast?" Leena asked.

"I heard them. I was looking for them to see why Claudia missed our lunch. They weren't in the tent so I called out for them and Claudia answered. I followed her voice but I couldn't find her. That was about three hours ago."

Myka leaned against the nearby counter. "We didn't have any artefact activity. Nothing unusual happened."

Pete put his hands on his hips. "We should go back and look for them again. Retrace their steps."

Steve looked at him in surprise. "How should we do that?"

Myka smiled. "You'll see."

xxx

"Okay," Claudia said softly when yet another deep growl had faded, her hand fisted in the old wool of Artie's cardigan. "We don't happen to have a huge watch dog that you forgot to mention over the past year or so?"

"No, we don't," Artie whispered.

Claudia swallowed, fighting down the urge to run. "What growled at us then?"

"I don't know." Artie looked around, then he took her hand. "Let's go." He started walking rather briskly.

Claudia wasn't sure that was the right move. She felt a bit like a mouse in a maze with the cat watching her from above. "Where to?"

"Further away from the growling."

"I love that plan," Claudia answered and let Artie drag her around a corner and down another aisle. She looked behind them, somehow dreading that the danger was following them wherever they went, and then asked the one question that had been running through her mind since this day had went to hell in a hand basket. "The others will know what happened to us, right?"

Artie hesitated. "I'm not sure."

Claudia's eyes widened. "They will notice that we're missing."

"I hope so."

"If they don't, I'm gonna be pissed."

Artie sighed, taking another turn. "Even if they know what happened, they won't know where we are or how to fix it."

"They'll find a way."

"God, let's hope so."

They walked on, back towards the office. When they turned a corner, though, something unexpected happened: there were two people standing in the aisle, looking around. A man and a woman Claudia had never seen before.

Artie and Claudia froze. The man was wearing a long coat with military stripes on the shoulders – it seemed a bit old-fashioned, though, as if he'd bought it at a veteran flee market. The woman, dressed much more contemporary, was standing very close to him and dark hair was falling onto her shoulders.

When the man noticed them, he raised his hand and Claudia found herself at gunpoint. She gasped, startled, and Artie pushed her behind him protectively. The man did the same with the woman. "Who are you?" he asked. He was tall, athletic and very handsome. His face was linear and smooth, the fringe of his dark short hair brushing his forehead. A pair of blue eyes stared at them mistrustfully, the hand with the gun was unnervingly calm.

Artie raised one hand, keeping the other held out to the side to keep Claudia behind him. Claudia's thoughts were running a mile a minute: Who were they? How had they got here? Did they know about the Warehouse?

"Step to the side," the man said loudly and Claudia realized that he meant her. "Show me your hands."

Now, Artie found his voice again. "Who are you?"

"I asked first," the man answered, then looked at Claudia again. "Come on."

"Jack," the woman said now and put a hand on his arm, "it's just a girl."

"If I had a penny for every time I thought that and regretted it," the man – Jack – answered.

The woman shook her head and squeezed his arm. She had a friendly face with wide, green eyes, and a gap-toothed smile that she flashed at Artie and Claudia. "It's alright. Don't be scared."

"Gwen-"

"Jack," she interrupted him. "For God's sake they're not dangerous and you know it. Maybe they can help us figure this out."

Claudia stepped out from behind Artie even though he tried to stop her. "Figure this out?" she echoed. "Are you trapped here, too?"

Gwen smiled at her and Jack reluctantly lowered his gun. He tucked it into a gun belt, pushing back his coat to do so. Claudia noticed red suspenders, a dress shirt and wool trousers and then her eyes caught a flash of leather around his wrist before the coat sleeve hid it from sight again. His gaze remained watchful, his posture tense.

"We are," Gwen answered Claudia's question. "Got swept away and landed here." Her accent was strange. Not Australian, not quite British, and certainly not American like Jack's. She stepped towards Claudia and Artie and offered her hand. "Gwen Cooper."

Artie hesitantly shook her hand and nodded. "Artie Nielsen, this is Claudia Donovan."

Claudia waved _Hi _with a nervous smile that Gwen returned.

Jack came closer. He nodded solemnly, clearly not quite ready yet to trust them fully but giving them the benefit of doubt. "Captain Jack Harkness."

Gwen added, "My boss."

Claudia grinned. "Artie's _my_ boss."

He snorted. "She doesn't treat me like it, though."

A small smile bloomed on Jack's face. "I know the feeling."

"Oi!" Gwen scowled.

Jack became serious. "I need you to tell me what exactly happened. Did you touch something unusual? Feel strange? See something?"

Artie and Claudia exchanged a look before Artie replied, "That's what I wanted to ask you."

Claudia nodded. "Like, did you smell fudge?"

"Fudge?" Jack echoed.

Claudia remembered something and looked at Artie. "I _didn't_ smell fudge by the way – not even a whiff."

"Look," Gwen said calmly, "we're kind of experts in strange things, so whatever happened, you can tell us. We'll believe you."

Claudia swallowed. "Man, sounds like something we would say."

Artie let out an exasperated sigh. "Who exactly are you? What kind of _experts_ are you?"

Jack answered, "That's classified. Who are _you_?"

"Classified as well."

"So, we've clearly got a problem here."

"Clearly."

They stared at each other.

Claudia suggested, "How about we show you ours if you show us yours?"

Gwen crossed her arms. "Sounds reasonable," she said and looked at Jack questioningly.

"Fine," he agreed. "We're Torchwood from Cardiff. We deal with alien incursions, time travel, the stuff your nightmares are made from."

Claudia was still working through that answer while Artie was already saying, "Warehouse 13, South Dakota. We deal with emotionally charged artefacts and their dangerous side effects."

"Emotionally charged?" Jack asked in disbelief. "Please!"

"Aliens?" Artie replied just as incredulously. "Please!"

"Boys!" Claudia said. "Let's play nice." She looked at Gwen curiously. "Aliens?"

Gwen shrugged. "Sometimes."

"Awesome!"

The low growl echoed through the Warehouse again.

Jack's hand curled around the butt of his gun and Gwen turned in a circle, clearly trying to see what was causing the noise. "What was that?" she asked.

Artie answered, "A problem. A probably very big problem."

Jack pulled his gun. "Sounds like it. Let's find a safe place to talk."

Claudia's eyes widened. "The Pete cave!"

Artie frowned at her. "Do I even want to know what that is?"

"Probably not," she answered. "I'll lead the way." She started walking and the others followed her.

Artie stayed beside her while Gwen and Jack followed. Claudia heard Gwen ask, "Do you think Ianto knows what's going on?"

"I'm sure of it," Jack answered. "You know Ianto."

Curiously, Claudia turned around, walking backward. "Who's Ianto?"

Gwen answered, "He works with us. He's very resourceful."

Jack nodded. "I'm sure he's already working on getting us out of here."

Artie added, "And he won't be the only one. My agents will already be working the case as well." Claudia got the feeling that there was some kind of competition going on between the men when Artie threw Jack a false smile. "They'll know what to do. They are highly qualified and experienced."


	5. Chapter 5

**4.**

"Cookies!" Pete exclaimed and grabbed the plate that was standing on a crate in the decontamination tent. Even though they were all wearing safety goggles to protect their eyes from the purple light in here, Pete could practically see Myka roll her eyes. Steve, carrying the Durational Spectrometer, gave him a puzzled look. Only Leena was smiling a bit and Pete caught himself thinking that, maybe, she was still carrying a torch for him and it would be way easier than it had been with Kelly and …

What was that?

He set the plate down and snagged the piece of paper that had been underneath it. "Got something."

The others turned away from their respective searching places and turned to him.

Myka looked at the piece of paper curiously. "What is it?"

"A note." Pete squinted at the untidy scrawl on it. "Must be Artie's 'cause there's no way I can read that."

Myka sighed. "Give it to me." She skimmed the note and then raised her eyes to Pete, repeating what she'd just read, "Milk, bread, eggs ..."

Leena gave Pete a fond smile. "Yeah, I think you cracked the case, Pete."

"What?" he asked, taking another cookie. "It could have been important."

"So," Steve said, handing the Durational Spectrometer to Pete. He checked his watch. "You say this thing only shows what happened in the last five hours?"

Pete nodded, switching the device on and manipulating the little wheel controlling the settings. The Spectrometer looked like a surveillance camera gone bad with the red light coming out the lens, but it was quite useful. "Exactly."

Steve put his hands on his hips. "I don't want to be the one to point it out but it's been six at least."

Myka looked over Pete's shoulder. He turned away, trying to let her know that he could handle this alone, but she kept following him. "We're kind of hoping that it'll still work. The dial goes back until ten hours, so …"

Pete had turned the dial back six hours and took a slow sweep of the room. Myka shook her head, confirming what he saw. "Nothing. We're too late."

He was just about to switch it off when Leena said, "Wait!" She pointed at something and when Pete narrowed his eyes, he could see slight differences in the air, like …

"Outlines," Steve said.

Myka stepped closer to the outlines of Artie and Claudia, talking animatedly. "They're fading fast."

They watched Claudia opening a crate and handing something over to Artie. Then they left.

"Follow them," Steve said.

xxx

The 'Pete Cave', as Claudia had called it, turned out to be a middle-sized room hidden behind a slightly rusty door. When Claudia entered, she looked around and her shoulders sagged. "It's empty," she said.

Artie frowned at her. "As it should be."

Gwen saw Claudia pull a face. She looked slightly guilty. "Sure."

"Can I assume that the … Pete Cave," Artie said slowly, "is Pete's ..."

"... playroom," Claudia finished. "Normally, but whatever brought us here didn't just remove the artefacts but also the furniture in here." She rubbed her belly. "And the snack machine."

Artie rolled his eyes. Gwen found herself smiling, feeling reminded of Owen and Ianto bickering.

The door slid shut and she felt safe for the first time since they'd arrived here. Even Jack seemed a bit more relaxed. Gwen looked at Claudia and Artie – two people who couldn't be more different and yet seemed drawn to each other. Or at least, Claudia seemed drawn to Artie, standing close to him while trying to look self-confident. She was in her mid-twenties, Gwen assumed, and the tight black jeans hugged slim legs while the purple Greenday t-shirt stood in stark contrast to her short, red hair. Artie, on the other hand, was much older, maybe in his early fifties, and dressed like a librarian. He was looking at Jack with dark, still slightly sceptic eyes and asked, "So, what _exactly_ is Torchwood?"

"Torchwood was founded by Queen Victoria and our main goal is to protect Earth from alien threats." Jack shoved his hands in his coat pockets. "We're located in Cardiff and monitor one of the biggest Rifts in space and time that has ever existed. Through that Rift, aliens, time travellers and all kinds of flotsam and jetsam fall to Earth, 21st century, and we are the ones to make sure that the public doesn't know about it and that there's no threat posed to the planet."

Claudia's pretty face lit up with excitement. "Sounds awesome."

Gwen smiled at her. "It's dirty work, most of the time. Very dangerous."

"But," Jack added, "we get to drink tea with the Queen every once in a while."

They became silent for a moment and Jack's challenging gaze caught Artie head-on. Artie sighed reluctantly. "Warehouse 13 is a secret task force most of the government doesn't even know about. We find artefacts – objects that have a person's or event's emotional output channelled into them – and store them away so that nobody can use them. Many of these artefacts could, if they were to fall into the wrong hands, be used for warfare or assassinations or whatever you can think of."

Gwen frowned. "I don't quite understand. How does that work?"

Claudia answered, "Adolf Hitler's microphone can cause people to do whatever you want them to do when you speak into it. Sylvia Plath's typewriter takes away your will to live."

"Some artefacts are more destructive than others," Artie added.

"Yeah, I personally quite like the Freezing Snowglobe. It cools your drinks within seconds."

Artie glared at her. "Didn't I tell you to stop using it?"

"I stopped using it!"

The lie was pretty obvious, but Artie didn't seem to notice or he chose not to. "I hope so. Used too often, it can cause permanent hypothermia."

Claudia looked taken aback at that and Gwen guessed that she would really stop using it now.

"Artefacts usually always have bad side effects," Artie explained to Jack and Gwen.

Gwen asked, "So did you get here through an artefact?"

"'Here' is actually a copy of the Warehouse. There are no artefacts around and the emergency exits are missing, but the shelves, the layout … it's the Warehouse."

Claudia explained, "Ariadne's thread brought us here. No idea how that happened. We were following protocol in handling it. It shouldn't have activated."

"Well," Artie replied, "I might have an answer to that. How did you two get here?"

Jack shrugged. "Alien artefact in our archives. You recognize this place so I assume that we left the UK and this is a dimensional shift of the Warehouse."

Claudia asked, "And what's that when it's home?"

"Reality as we know it is made up from different layers – dimensions. Humans are generally familiar with six layers – three dimensions of sight, one dimension of smell, one of sound and one of feel. There are aliens who can perceive even more dimensions that are invisible to us. We entered one of those."

Gwen added, "It's a set-up. This dimension was created as kind of a game for an alien race. Contestants get transported here to … play … and others watch them from the outside."

Claudia's eyes widened. "We're trapped in a game show? Somebody's watching us?"

Jack shook his head. "I don't think we're being watched. We found the artefact ages ago. It just still does its job." He looked at Artie. "When we activated it and got transported here, your … thread must have been activated as well."

"A bifurcated object," Artie said with a nod. "Two artefacts belonging together."

"Sorry," Jack replied, "but I guess that what you've got isn't an artefact … it's pure alien technology mistaken for an artefact."

Silence enveloped them.

Claudia looked at Artie. "What do we do now?"

Jack answered, "It's a game show. We have to play the game and find the way out. Believe me, I've been through this whole evil game show thing before."

"The description for the thread said that it's a key," Artie explained.

"Then we need that thread."

"It was the only thing to be transported here. We left it on a shelf. Follow me."

xxx

Claudia still didn't quite know what to think of their companions. Gwen seemed to be the nice one out of the pair of them. Jack didn't seem to trust them very much and she was honestly not sure what to think of him. For the moment, he seemed to have decided in favour of Claudia and Artie and the ease with which he secured their surroundings, always keeping an eye out for whoever – whatever – had growled at them, was reassuring. Gwen was alert as well, working under Jack's guidance, taking hints from the smallest gestures and tilts of his head. Claudia was reminded of the way Myka and Pete communicated during retrievals.

They made their way back to the shelf where they'd left the thread without hearing the growl. Claudia was relieved … until they reached the spot where the thread had been.

It was gone.

"Oh, crap," she said and looked at Artie who was staring at the shelf in disbelief. "This is so not good."


	6. Chapter 6

**5.**

Rhys felt nervous, anxious and scared. Ianto seemed to be calm and collected while he worked on solving the mystery of Jack and Gwen's disappearance and that started to really piss Rhys off. He paced from the couch to the water tower, to the armoury and then to look over Ianto's shoulder, just to head back to the couch again. Finally, he asked, "Aren't you worried?"

Ianto spun on the desk chair to look at Rhys with his eyebrows raised. "Of course I am," he answered calmly, "but I need to stay focused. It wouldn't help Jack or Gwen if I panic."

Rhys sighed, reluctantly seeing Ianto's point. "Right. Where are we at?" he asked, putting a hand on Ianto's shoulder in apology.

Ianto nodded at him. "Their mobiles are still being traced. Of course, it could lead to nothing since they're not exactly in our dimension anymore."

"But it must be a good sign that the trace is still working, right?" Rhys asked.

"Probably." Ianto pointed at the map on the screen, currently displaying satellite images of America. "Currently, the trace seems to be pointing towards the USA."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, somewhere in South Dakota, Nebraska or Wyoming." He sighed and turned to another screen showing a text with too many complicated words thrown in for Rhys to understand. "As for the device … I'm trying to find a way to bring them back but apparently, we never learned much about how exactly it works. We could use Tosh right about now." He paused, looking sad, and ran a hand through his short hair.

Rhys swallowed. An uncomfortable silence settled over them while Ianto continued reading through the notes and Rhys just stood there, feeling useless. "How about dinner?" he finally asked. "Hungry?"

Ianto glanced at him. "Not really."

"You must eat. I haven't seen you have anything since breakfast and that was ten hours ago. I'm starving."

"I can't eat."

Rhys remembered Gwen telling him that Ianto tended to neglect eating when stressed. He squared his shoulders, knowing she would kill him if he'd let Ianto get away with it. Not to mention that Jack would probably stand second in line. "Well, you'll have to," he said. "I'm getting pizza."

Without waiting for an answer, he left.

xxx

"Okay, what just happened?" Pete asked, staring at the space where Claudia and Artie had been just a minute ago.

Myka opened her mouth to answer, but she didn't know what to say. They'd just vanished, their already fading imprints gone altogether.

Pete switched the Durational Spectrometer off, looking at the others questioningly.

Leena crossed her arms. "What did Artie say this artefact is?"

"Ariadne's thread," Pete answered. "At least, that's what I could read from his lips. But since their images were fading, I don't know if I got it quite right."

Myka replied, "No, I think you did. I know Ariadne."

"'Course you do," Pete said and rolled his eyes at Steve. "There's nothing book store girl doesn't know."

Myka frowned at him disapprovingly, but she refrained from saying anything. It would only lead to childish bickering and while Pete liked to get concern and stress out of his system that way, Myka didn't.

Leena sighed. "I'll go see what I can find out about the thread from our database," she said and hurried back the long distance towards the office.

Pete looked after her. "Okay ... what do we do?"

Myka shrugged, a bit insecure herself. She felt useless. Usually, she was able to handle unexpected problems a lot better, but this was hard. Artie was their source for information, the guy they called when they didn't know what to do. And all of them had a soft spot for Claudia. This had happened within the safe walls of the Warehouse. That in itself was nothing new, but it was the first time they really didn't have Artie's knowledge of the Warehouse to call upon. The problems caused by artefacts within these walls were often even more unique and harder to handle than the ones caused by artefacts outside. Myka's hand found its way into her curly hair, starting to wrap one strand around her index finger nervously. "Mrs. Frederick would know what to do."

Steve suggested, "Let's think like Mrs. Frederick then." He put his hands on his hips. Myka could see that he was just as tense as her and Pete. He hadn't been part of the team for very long but she'd noticed the way he and Claudia had gravitated towards each other from day one. He had to be as worried as the rest of them.

"Right," Myka replied with a nod. "What would Mrs. Frederick do?"

Pete grimaced. "Materialize behind us to scare the crap out of us."

"I will pretend not to have heard that," somebody said behind them and they whirled around. Mrs. Frederick was standing there, her dark hair in the usual, strict style and her face set in a neutral mask. The pink costume she wore and the pearl necklace made her look like a particularly disapproving aunt.

Pete let out a startled breath. "Good ... Jesus! How do you do that?!"

Mrs. Frederick raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at that.

Pete gave an embarrassed smile. "Looking good there. Did you lose weight?"

"Agent Lattimer, are you suggesting I should?" Mrs. Frederick asked.

Pete took a subtle step to the side to stand behind Myka. She knew that he was a bit intimated by the Warehouse's caretaker. Her penchant for just appearing and disappearing out of thin air had even Artie a bit unsettled. But while she seemed strict and hard at first glance, Myka knew that she was in fact quite a warm and charming person, intelligent and dedicated to the Warehouse. Aside from that, they didn't know much about her and nothing at all about her private life. Pete had once run a search on her with Claudia, the both of them insatiable in their curiosity. Pete had been convinced for about a week that he'd found her on an old photograph showing a college rowing team for African-American women, but it had been Mrs. Frederick herself who'd informed him that she had certainly never even touched a row. Their search had ceased with that reprimand.

Mrs. Frederick's dark eyes found Myka's and she unconsciously straightened her shoulders. She had the deepest respect for Mrs. Frederick, as did everyone else. Mrs. Frederick raised an eyebrow. "You should have informed me of the situation sooner."

"We're sorry," Myka said. "I guess we were waiting until we had something to report."

"Ariadne's Thread is 'something'," Mrs. Frederick answered.

Steve narrowed his eyes. "What do you know about it?"

"Not a lot. It was a legend. For a while, we weren't sure that it even really existed."

Pete replied, "Well, it does and it took Artie and Claudia."

"I'm well aware of that, Agent Lattimer," Mrs. Frederick said and he shrunk back behind Myka. Mrs. Frederick turned back to her. "In Artie's absence, you will be in charge."

"Hey, why her?" Pete asked. "I've been here longer."

Myka turned to him, incredulous. "We were hired at the same time."

"You took a break not too long ago. Remember? That's why we took the puppy in." Pete tilted his head towards Steve at that.

Steve crossed his arms, his face darkening. "Puppy?"

"Agent Lattimer," Mrs. Frederick said, "the Regents want Agent Bering to be in charge, so she is in charge." Myka swallowed. The Regents were the management behind the Warehouse and not to be disobeyed. They didn't know too much about them, either. Just that they were people coming from various social, cultural and religious backgrounds and that they knew a lot more than any Warehouse Agent. Even Artie.

Steve turned to Mrs. Frederick. "Do you know anything about how the thread could affect Artie and Claudia?"

"We know that it doesn't hurt them, but wherever it took them, they could get hurt there. Or even die."

Pete sighed. "Great. No pressure then."

Myka decided to ask Mrs. Frederick what she would suggest their first move should be, but when between the blink of an eye she had gone.

Steve gaped. "How did she ..."

"You get used to it," Pete replied.

"Artie said that about your jokes," Steve said and turned away to head towards the office. "I'm still waiting!"

xxx

"That's a joke, right?" Rhys asked, staring at the satellite image where a small, blinking dot signalled the position of Jack and Gwen's mobiles. "That's the middle of nowhere." It was wasteland, to be exact. The Badlands in South Dakota. Rhys wasn't happy.

"I don't think it's a joke," Ianto answered and opened another program. "You see?" he asked. Rhys looked at the readings. He didn't see it, but he trusted that Ianto was right, so he nodded, while Ianto continued, "I get strange energy readings from there. The same ones we got here when Jack and Gwen vanished. Readings form a transdimensional transporter." He grabbed the phone.

"What now?" Rhys asked.

"Somebody at UNIT owes me a favour."

Rhys's eyes widened. "You think it's got something to do with the military?"

"No, but the person who owes me favour could have somebody else owing her a favour … and that could give us an answer."


	7. Chapter 7

**6.**

It was a sound Steve didn't know – a high ring, almost like that of an old-fashioned phone. They looked at each other questioningly and then at the black phone standing at the very edge of Artie's desk. It was dusty and though old, looked as good as new which was probably down to them usually using their Farnsworths and mobiles. Steve hadn't heard the phone ringing since he'd started working here. He hadn't even been sure that it worked.

They looked at one another again.

"Wow," Pete finally said, "that never rings."

"Well, should we answer it?" Steve asked.

Nobody answered. The phone stopped ringing.

Pete shrugged. "Problem solved."

The phone started ringing again.

"Okay," Steve said. "This is ridiculous. It's just a phone." He paused, though, before touching it and looked at Leena questioningly. "Right?"

She crossed her arms and nodded. "Right." She was unsure, though. He could see it in her eyes.

Steve let out a long breath, cleared his throat and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"_Who's there?"_ a man asked.

Steve didn't quite know what to answer for a second, then he remembered their cover story. "IRS. Who's there?"

"_My name's Ianto Jones. This may sound strange but is there a Jack Harkness or a Gwen Cooper around?" _

Steve frowned, but he caught himself looking around as if the mysterious two missing persons would materialize in their midst. Instead, he got a face full of Pete who tried to listen in on the conversation, ignoring personal space altogether. Steve agreed with Myka – it was like having a dog sometimes. "No," he told the man – Ianto Jones. "Who is this?"

There was a long pause on the other end, and then, _"I could say that I'm calling from a tourist office in Cardiff Bay but we both know that's as much of a lie as you telling me that you're IRS. I don't see a building on the satellite images but there's a phone line and a connection so I guess a perception filter." _Steve looked at Pete. Pete looked confused. Ianto Jones asked, _"Who are you? UNIT?" _

Steve put a hand over the receiver and stared at Myka. "He says he knows we're not IRS. What am I supposed to do now?"

Pete looked at Myka as well. "You're the one who read the handbook."

Myka shrugged and Leena just stood there, her arms folded, so Steve made a decision. "Listen, do you have Skype?"

xxx

Cardiff and Nowheresville, South Dakota established a Skype conversation pretty quickly. Rhys didn't accept Ianto's suggestion to leave and wait for him to call him. Instead, he settled in behind Ianto, staring at the screen intently over his shoulder. Ianto hadn't expected anything less if he was honest. From the monitor, four people looked back at them – two men and two women. They introduced themselves as Steve Jinks, Pete Lattimer, Myka Bering and Leena ("just Leena"). While Ianto talked to them, he pulled up their files. He was sure that they were doing the same about him and Rhys. "You're not IRS," he said, opening the conversation.

"_You're not a tourist office,"_ Myka replied. She was an attractive woman with dark hair and the confidence of a leader about her. "So, you're missing someone?"

"Two people," Ianto answered. "Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper."

"_The names don't ring a bell." _

Pete leaned closer to the screen. He had a resolute face, but a friendly smile. _"But it's funny that you called. We're missing two people ourselves. Claudia Donovan and Artie Nielsen. A small red-head and a grumpy guy."_

Ianto shook his head. "They're not here, but our instruments say that Jack and Gwen are where you are."

Myka frowned. _"They must be wrong."_

Leena nudged her with her elbow. She was a mystery to Ianto. She seemed to be young but her green eyes were old. She reminded him of Jack. _"It's big,"_ she replied, running a hand through her long, curly hair. _"Are we sure?"_

"Okay, this is ridiculous," Rhys said impatiently. "Why don't we just tell each other what exactly we're working with? Because I think that keeping secrets isn't worth anything in this case!"

Ianto closed his eyes. "Rhys."

"That's my wife who's missing!"

"I get how you feel," Ianto said slowly, "but still ..."

"_He's right,"_ Steve said. He was the youngest one of them, his serious face concerned. Myka looked at him warningly. Steve repeated, _"He is. Who knows what's happening to Claudia and Artie right now."_ He looked at Ianto. _"This is Warehouse 13. We deal with artefacts that have special powers and one of them took our colleagues."_

"Torchwood," Rhys said before Ianto could stop him. "They hunt aliens and my wife was taken by an alien entertainment unit."

Pete grinned wildly. _"Aliens? Man, that's so cool! Are you like the Men In Black?"_

Ianto rolled his eyes and Myka nudged Pete – hard.

"_What?"_ he asked, rubbing his arm. _"He wears a suit!"_

Myka shook her head and turned back to Ianto. _"Okay, since your instruments pick up your people here at the Warehouse, you should come here." _

"Where exactly is 'here'?" Ianto asked.

"_Take a flight to Sioux Falls. We'll pick you up,"_ Myka decided. _"And bring the … alien entertainment unit."_

xxx

"Does anybody else think that this is a waste of time?" Claudia asked when they entered what must be the trillionth aisle in their search for the thread. "It's not here." They were getting closer to the office now. Claudia began to feel like somebody had cut a hole into her stomach. She was so hungry it was unreal. She was just glad she wasn't trapped here with Pete. He could become a real pain in the ass when he got hungry.

Gwen asked, "We don't really have another choice, do we?"

Claudia looked at her curiously. "I'm sorry. I have to ask. Your accent ..."

"I'm Welsh."

Claudia looked at Artie who was walking behind her with Jack taking up point, warily on the look-out for the owner of the growl. Claudia grinned. "Remember how Pete and Myka went to Wales once? To get Excalibur?"

Jack turned around to them, his eyes wide. "Excalibur? _You_ have that? We've been looking for it forever, suspecting it's alien."

With a shake of his head, Artie replied, "It's one of ours. Pure artefact."

Claudia grinned. "Yeah. Myka must have never been happier to smell fudge."

Gwen frowned. "What's this fudge business about?"

"You smell it when an artefact activates. I didn't smell it when the thread went rogue, though."

Jack nodded. "Because it's one of ours. Pure alien."

Artie seemed not too fond of that idea, judging by his sour expression. "We can't be sure."

Claudia and Gwen looked at each other and rolled their eyes. By now, they were both pretty sure that Jack and Artie had started an unofficial contest about which was the more exciting secret organization.

All of them froze when a deep growl echoed through the room. Claudia stepped back towards Artie by instinct and he put a hand on her back.

Jack cocked his revolver. "And that must be ..."

"A Minotaur," Artie answered.

Claudia stared at him, even though he refused to meet her eyes, staring straight ahead instead. "We can't be sure it's a Minotaur," she said. "What's a Minotaur, anyway?"

Gwen answered, "Look for yourself." She was staring in the same direction Artie and Jack were.

Claudia didn't want to look, she really didn't, but she followed their eyes anyway. "Holy shit!"

There, at the end of the aisle leading towards the office, stood a man twice or thrice Jack's size. He was bare-chested, just wearing short pants that looked to be made of leather, broad-shouldered and brutal-looking – and he had a bull's head.

Claudia gasped. "Dude," she whispered.

A hand clamped around Claudia's, painfully tight, and she registered with surprise that it was Jack's. "Run," he said.

So they did.


	8. Chapter 8

**7.**

Sioux Falls was roughly a four-hour car ride away from the Warehouse. Steve volunteered. It gave him something better to do than worry about Claudia.

Ianto Jones, still wearing his impeccable suit, was a tall man with dark hair and a serious expression on his boyish face. He didn't come alone. He'd brought the other man – Rhys Williams – with him. Rhys was dressed more casually. He had a friendly face and light-brown hair. The Warehouse Agents had checked his and Ianto's files. Rhys was a manager at Harwoods Lorries. Steve wondered if he would be up for what awaited them.

When they pulled away from the airport, Steve asked, "Do you have security clearance, Rhys?"

Rhys frowned at him from the back seat, his friendly face set in determination. "That's my wife who vanished. So you better be prepared to-"

"He works with us sometimes," Ianto interrupted Rhys and Steve saw him turn his head to look warningly at him over his shoulder. Then he looked back at Steve. "He'll be fine."

Steve nodded. "Right." They left the city behind, driving on the highway. "We researched Torchwood, found some classified stuff and managed to get some information via our contacts high up."

"That saves me the explanation," Ianto replied.

"I guess you did your homework as well?"

"I had to make sure I can trust you. Don't get me wrong but we have experiences with very cunning schemes – once, our Prime Minister turned out to be an alien hell-bent on taking over Earth. Since I'm the only Torchwood Agent left at the moment, I had to be careful."

Steve nodded in understanding. "So, who exactly are you missing?"

"Our leader Captain Jack Harkness and Agent Gwen Cooper."

Steve needed a moment to understand what Ianto was telling him. "Are you saying that you're only three people?" he asked in disbelief.

It as quiet for a long moment, then Ianto answered, "There were more of us. Our headquarters in London was destroyed a few years ago, the branch in Scotland was closed down recently. We lost two team mates just a few days ago."

"I'm sorry."

"No worries. Not your fault."

Steve thought that – in the end – there wasn't that big a difference between the Torchwood team and the Warehouse team. They were five people themselves – six, if you counted Leena. He wondered sometimes what they would do if something terrible happened … if two or more of them died. It was a distinct possibility. Working at the Warehouse was dangerous. Artefacts had fatal side effects and were constantly used against them.

The silence in the car was alright for Steve and Ianto didn't seem bothered by it as well, preferring to work on his PDA. Rhys on the other hand started to become uncomfortable and finally asked, "Who exactly are you missing?"

"Our leader as well – Artie Nielsen."

Still looking at his PDA, Ianto said, "He has a colourful past."

"He does but he's absolutely trustworthy, a good guy – just a bit grumpy."

"And the other one?"

"Claudia Donovan. Colourful past too, but the exact opposite of Artie where the general mood is concerned." He paused. "She's my best friend."

Ianto looked up from his PDA. Steve wondered if he was looking at their files right this minute. He caught the comforting smile on Ianto's lips when he said, "A colourful past is pretty much required if you want to work for Torchwood. We'll get her back. All of them."

"I hope you're right," Steve replied. He sighed. "We're not going to the Warehouse tonight. It's going to be late by the time we get back and you must be exhausted. We have rooms for you at the B&B where we live. The owner Leena is already expecting you for dinner. Myka and Pete will meet us there and we'll talk. You can get some sleep before we get to work tomorrow."

Ianto was reluctant. "I don't know if that's a good idea. We should get to work immediately."

"Believe me, the Warehouse is a place you better enter wide-awake the first time. The artefacts are inactive but they always exert a certain kind of pull that can cause you to touch them and that can get deadly. It's stronger the more tired you are." He glanced at Ianto. "It's not like we're not doing anything at all. We'll talk through what we tried to get them back and what you tried back home and make a plan."

Ianto nodded, giving in.

xxx

Jack turned his head in Claudia's direction when she climbed up the last bit of the shelf to join him. She sat next to him, dangling her feet over the edge, and looked out over the rows of shelves towards the office. From the floor, Artie's snores drifted up and Claudia leaned over to look down at him. He was sleeping, sitting up against the shelf. Gwen sat opposite him, asleep as well.

Jack nudged her with his shoulder. "You should be sleeping."

Claudia turned to look at him. "Artie's snoring." She pulled a face when her stomach cramped uncomfortably. "I can't sleep anyway. I'm so hungry." She wished Artie would have had his bag with him. The huge, old thing always contained lunch for emergencies: sandwiches, fruit and some cookies. What she wouldn't give for them … Jack turned his head away, staring at the office. She suggested carefully, "So, you could go to sleep and I'll keep watch."

Jack threw her a smile. "I don't sleep." He seemed to be completely honest about that, his blue eyes earnest. "Well, I don't need to."

"No kidding?" Claudia asked.

Jack shook his head.

"How come?"

"Long story." He sighed. "I don't think we really need a guard anyway."

The change in topic was abrupt, but Claudia accepted it. "Why?"

"Didn't you notice?" Jack stared at her searchingly. Ever so slowly, Claudia started to feel uncomfortable under his gaze. She wondered if it had been the right move to come up here. Jack was so weird, in a way, mysterious. He seemed trustworthy but also distant, warm but also strict. Gwen was easier to figure out. But somehow, Claudia just felt secure around Jack. It was a similar feeling she'd had around Artie from the very first moment and that caused her to trust Jack as well.

Now, Jack seemed to wait for an answer, staring at her curiously. She looked towards the office and then her eyes widened in realization. "As soon as we were far enough away from the office, the Minotaur stopped chasing us." She looked at Jack. "You think it's guarding a certain perimeter."

Jack grinned proudly and nodded. "Would only be fair to give the contestants a place to find some rest," he answered. "Which makes me think that the thread is in the office."

"Could be," Claudia said with a nod.

For a moment, they were quiet. Claudia glanced at Jack. He looked grim and worried … and like someone who didn't quite belong. He seemed to notice her staring and smiled at her. "Are you even old enough to work here?"

"I'm old enough to drink," she answered and pulled a face, admitting, "barely." He raised his eyebrows and Claudia shrugged. "I'm used to it. I certainly had it worse." Jack just kept staring at her and Claudia started to feel uncomfortable again. "What?"

"You're older than you look."

"Gee, thanks, just what a girl wants to hear."

"No, I mean you've seen more than you should have." He turned away to look towards the office again. "I'm surrounded by people like you. I recognize them." He sounded sad, almost resigned. "The question is: what are you still doing here, in a job like this? A smart girl like you could go to university, be amongst people her own age, party, date, meet the love of her life."

A quip was just waiting to leave her lips, but she paused. It wasn't like Artie or the others had never told her the same. She'd even applied for university and was working towards a graduation via the internet. And it wasn't like she never thought the same but she never quite felt like she could say so openly, scared that the others might try to push her harder. But Jack wasn't one of the others. "Maybe I can't. Not after what I've seen here." She sighed. "I could never leave. This is family. They did more for me than anyone else. I lived on the street, they got me out, gave me a room, gave me a job … gave me back my brother. This job is mad sometimes, but it's worth it."

"Worth the nightmares?"

"I have plenty of those without this job. What's a few more?"

Jack took a breath and turned to look at her abruptly, but then he paused, frowned, shook his head.

"What?" Claudia asked. "Have I got something on my face?"

"I would recruit you from the spot if you weren't taken already."

Claudia raised her eyebrows. "In need of a computer genius, are you?" Jack's smile dimmed and Claudia realized that she must have hit a nerve. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. We recently lost two people."

"One of them being your computer genius?" Claudia closed her eyes. "Artie always tells me it would be better for me to talk less and think more sometimes." She felt him cup her cheek and opened her eyes.

"I disagree," he said. Something beeped and Jack pulled back his sleeve to look at a leather wristband. He flipped open the cover and checked a small screen installed inside.

Fascinated, Claudia leaned closer to have a look. "What's that?"

"A nice piece of technology. I'm using it to try and figure out what we can do to get back home."

"Any solutions?"

Jack sighed. "Not yet."

xxx

The Bed & Breakfast made Ianto feel at home. It had that British flair to it that reminded him of his grandmother's house – all dark wooden furniture and plush chairs and sofas, flowers on little tables and lamps in every corner. Ianto sat at the big round table they'd had dinner at in the lounge, once again reading the files they had on the horns. In the end, he'd decided against bringing them. The danger of them activating again when touched was too big. And he didn't know what tests to do on them anyway – Tosh had pretty much covered everything there was to cover already.

The cool night air flowed through the terrace door he'd opened and he closed his eyes in relief. He'd changed out of his suit and was wearing jeans and a t-shirt instead. He would probably stick with that since the temperatures didn't really compliment a suit. He wasn't used to the hot weather of summer in South Dakota, being a Welsh boy through and through. The house was quiet but Ianto doubted that he was the only one awake. Every once in the while, the wooden floorboards in the bedrooms upstairs would creak, accompanied by the quiet sounds of footsteps.

"Can't sleep?" someone asked and, startled, he turned his head to look at Myka, who was standing in the door, wearing training bottoms and a too-big shirt.

He sighed and admitted, "No, not really."

"I can understand that." She sat next to him and leaned back in the chair. "We'll get them back."

"I know. I'm just worried."

"Me too, but as far as we know, all that happened is that they're out of phase, right? All we have to do is bring them back into our dimension."

"Yes, I'm just worried about the device's purpose. It's an entertainment device." He looked at Myka. "It's like a game show. What do we know about game shows?"

Myka's green eyes widened slightly and one of her fingers started to play with a lock of hair nervously. "There's always an obstacle to overcome."

"Yes. I doubt it's a quiz," Ianto replied.

"What do you think it is?" Myka asked.

Ianto cleared his throat. "A Minotaur." Myka frowned and Ianto shrugged. "You told us that Artie and Claudia were taken by a ball of string – Ariadne's thread – and our device is a statue – two horns."

"The labyrinth of the Minotaur," Myka said. "You think it's not a myth."

Ianto nodded. "It was made out to be one after decades and centuries of seeing it happen, of listening to the stories of those who survived."

"Seriously?" Myka asked.

Ianto shrugged. "I know that fairies have a grain of truth to them and I saw a demon once and people who materialized out of a roll of film … this isn't much crazier." He rubbed his forehead. "I hope they're up for it."

"Artie's really good with this stuff."

"Jack and Gwen, too, but things happen," Ianto answered and looked at her. "Things can always get out of hand."


	9. Chapter 9

**8.**

The Warehouse was unnoticeable and run-down from the outside, with rust already eating away at the walls and beams supporting a simple metal roof. From the outside, it seemed to be built into the mountain behind it, a forgotten building in the middle of the barren Badlands.

From the inside, it looked large enough to give Rhys the weird feeling that the mountain might have grown around it. Rhys barely had time to stare at the seemingly endless rows of shelves he could overlook from the balcony outside the comfortable office – not to mention take in the fact that there was a pyramid towering in the middle of the room and a Zeppelin floating above it (and was that the corner of a sports field of some kind he could see?) – before they gathered to make a battle plan.

Rhys felt a bit intimidated by the Warehouse agents. It was the same feeling he had around Jack and Ianto and sometimes even Gwen whenever he was at the Hub or helped them out in the field. Like everyone knew more than him, like he'd just joined a secret club and still had to read the handbook. It was Ianto, though, who inadvertently gave him a better feeling about it all. He had surprised him this morning by wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a denim jacket. Immediately, he looked ten years younger, more like the twenty-four he was supposed to be according to Gwen and more like the type of bloke Rhys felt comfortable around. His behaviour, though, was still strictly professional, speaking for both him and Rhys and Rhys was glad that everyone hurried through breakfast, eager to start working on the problem at hand.

"Okay," Myka said when everyone assembled in the office again, "yesterday, I started a search for artefacts that could help us get them back. It ran through the night but as it turned out, we only have a small amount of artefacts that potentially could maybe counteract the effect." She handed copies of the list around. "I suggest we go and check them out."

Rhys looked at the frighteningly short list. The names and incomprehensible abbreviations confused him and the list didn't explain what the artefacts could do. Before he was able to ask, though, Steve said, "Artie wouldn't be very happy about us using artefacts."

Pete was already busy folding the list as small as possible. "I think he's even unhappier about his current situation."

Myka had turned to a map on one wall Rhys hadn't noticed before. As cluttered as the office was, he wasn't surprised. It had to be a map of the Warehouse from a bird's point of view. The way the shelves were aligned made more sense now. The colours and abbreviations, though, didn't. Noticing the way Myka compared the list to the map, Rhys understood that Myka was looking up the storage places of the artefacts. Finally, she turned around to them. "Right, we're six people and there are four artefacts to check out. Pete and I will go and look up Morey Amsterdam's Hat and Max Tegmark's Glasses since they're pretty close together. Ianto and Steve, how about you take the original copy of Edwin Abott's _Flatland_? Leena and Rhys, you can see if Larry Butler's Academy Award could help us." She pointed at the map while she was speaking and while the Warehouse Agents nodded in understanding, Rhys started to fear that he would get lost. The fact that Leena would be with him was comforting.

Steve cleared his throat. "I don't want to rock the boat here but we can just look up the abilities of the artefacts on the computer, can't we?"

Myka pursed her lips. "The computer gave us a list of sixteen artefacts, four of which aren't documented very well. There were several agents who didn't take the paperwork very seriously. So, fourteen of the artefacts can't help us, I already checked. The other four came in with a shipment from Warehouse 12 and whoever was in charge missed doing more than accounting for their presence. We don't have a hard copy file on them and we don't have digital files, just the confirmation that they're here, a short description and common sense that tells us the people they belonged to could have given them helpful properties for this situation."

Pete raised his eyebrows. "Whose common sense?" He pointed at Myka as if giving the answer already.

Myka shot him an annoyed look. "Mine."

"So," Ianto interrupted the start of a bickering, frowning, "you hope that there's some sort of description with the artefact?"

Myka nodded. "Other artefacts from Warehouse 12 have index cards with them describing their properties. I hope these four have them as well."

Leena nodded. "Bring them with you when you come back here so I can log them into the system properly."

Ianto seemed put off and slightly irritated but the others didn't seem to notice. Rhys wondered what that said about his relationship to Ianto that he knew him well enough to read the signs. Ianto's voice didn't give his feelings away when he asked, "Does this happen very often around here? The neglect of the database?"

"It happens," Myka answered. "We only find out by coincidence."

"Don't take it personally," Rhys said. "He's an archivist."

Pete's eyes widened. "He's, like, the perfect husband for Myka, the book store girl."

"Shut up, Pete," she said.

Rhys decided to come back to the matter at hand. One thing worried him. "What if none of these … artefacts can help us?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Rhys frowned. "You have no idea, do you?"

The silence was answer enough.

xxx

Artie looked down the aisle that led down to the office. It looked awfully far away, like a hallway that stretched endlessly. "So, that's the plan?" he asked and looked up at Jack who was towering next to him, his arms crossed determinedly. He looked like some kind of hero out of a movie. Artie didn't like him very much. Even Jack's plan sounded like something out of a movie. "Run down there, hope to evade the Minotaur and somehow get up to the office to get to the string?"

Jack nodded. "That's the plan."

Artie glanced back over his shoulder towards Claudia and Gwen. Claudia looked pale and tired, sitting huddled against a shelf, and Gwen was walking up and down nervously.

"We don't have a lot of choices left," Jack said and Artie realized that he'd followed his gaze. "We're hungry, we're exhausted, it has to be today."

"I know," Artie said. "The office, though ... we can't get up there, the stairs are missing."

"We'll have to wing it," Jack replied and smiled crookedly. "I'm good at winging it."

Artie crossed his arms and smiled as well. "So am I."

Jack glanced towards Gwen and Claudia again. "Claudia's awfully young and this will get tough. Will she be able to handle it?"

"You wouldn't ask that, if you knew her better," Artie answered. "She'll have to … so she will."

xxx

They found it on a shelf, approximately fifteen minutes of walking time away from the office. Ianto had looked around while following Steve, trusting him to find the way through the rows of shelves. They were accompanied by Trailer, Artie's dog that seemed to have taken to Steve as an adopted owner as long as Artie was gone. The Warehouse was a very interesting place, Ianto had to admit that much. They'd passed by countless artefacts with very different abilities and Ianto's mind was running a mile a minute to catch up with his eyes. Finally, Steve stopped and looked at an old, dusty book on a shelf. It looked pretty ordinary, the letters on the cover faded a bit and the pages yellowed by time.

"This is it," Steve said and took the little index card that was lying next to it, also old and bearing handwritten notes. Ianto leaned closer to read over Steve's shoulder.

_Edwin Abott's Flatland: A Romance Of Many Dimensions. Original Version (1884)_  
_Causes the reader to be able and see all dimensions_

"That sounds encouraging," Ianto said.

Steve made a thoughtful noise. "I don't know about that." He pointed at a warning scribbled at the bottom of the card.

_**Is suspected to trap the reader in other dimensions!**_

"Is suspected?" Ianto asked.

"Well, it's not like you can ask them, right?" Steve replied with a wry smile and a shrug.

"Right," Ianto said and leaned against the shelf. "So let's rule this one out."

"Let's," Steve agreed with a sigh. Ianto pushed away from the shelf and glanced at the camera standing there, then he realized that Steve was already on his way back towards the office, Trailer trotting after him dejectedly. Ianto wanted to follow him quickly but had to stop again when a cough caught him unexpectedly and wouldn't let go. He squeezed his eyes shut and doubled over slightly to try and stifle the cough but it didn't work. He felt a hand on his shoulder and heard Steve ask, "Everything alright?"

The coughing subsided, but his throat still felt strangely sore. "I don't know," Ianto answered and frowned. He swallowed, feeling a new bout of coughing approach. "My throat's a bit sore, I guess." He coughed again.

"Sore? All of a sudden?" Steve asked.

Ianto started to feel dizzy and swayed. Steve steadied him and leaned him against the shelf. Ianto frowned when he heard someone scream. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"A scream. There was a scream."

He couldn't hear Steve's answer because the scream got louder and there was more than one person screaming now and he felt hot. Very hot. And then his blood froze when he heard the unmistakable sound of metal boots on the floor – rhythmic, coming closer, an army of ghosts turned Cybermen intending to find him, strap him down and remove everything human about him. He whimpered and crouched down, huddling against the shelf behind him, making himself as small a target as possible.

He heard someone yell his name and then he was forced to look into the face of someone he couldn't quite recognize, because the smoke of the fires was burning his eyes, tearing them up. But it was Steve, he realized. Steve … shouldn't even be here.

And suddenly, he wasn't cowering in Torchwood Tower any more, but standing in a living room. A man was standing in front of a couch where a woman was huddled, crying.

In the door, there was a boy with shaggy blonde hair who couldn't be older than fourteen. "What's wrong?" he asked. Something was familiar about him.

"Steve," the man said and Ianto realized that the boy indeed was Steve many years ago. He wondered if he was reliving an actual memory. He tried to move, tried to talk but he couldn't. It was like he was trapped in a mould, forced to stay exactly as he was. The man stared at Steve and swallowed. "It's your sister," he said. "Something happened and ..." He paused and the woman – Steve's mother, Ianto thought – sobbed. "She's dead," Steve's father whispered.


	10. Chapter 10

**9.**

They were all out of breath by the time they reached the office. Claudia turned in a circle, looking down all the aisles that branched off from here, but she couldn't see the Minotaur. Yet. She rubbed her belly, feeling hunger dig into her stomach like a knife and she was thirsty.

Jack, somehow having turned into the leader of their mismatched team, put his hands on his hips. "Alright, I don't think we have a lot of time," he said and looked towards the windows of the office. "How do we get up there?"

Claudia looked between the balcony and the nearest shelves. "Jump?" she suggested.

Jack pulled a face. "Too risky. It's too far away."

"It's not. I could make it."

Artie silenced her with a withering look. "The Captain's right."

Claudia frowned. "I'm a fast runner and I'm good at leaping."

"The last time you leapt, young lady, you almost killed yourself."

"It was a matter of inches! This is about the same distance. I'm fast, I'm light – I can make it."

Jack stared at her intently as if weighing his options.

Claudia raised her eyebrows. "We don't have any other choice. That thing could appear any second now."

Gwen looked around. "I wonder why it didn't already."

Artie made a thoughtful noise. "If this is a game … maybe it's giving us a chance."

Claudia nodded. "We should make use of it."

Jack seemed undecided. Gwen put a hand on his arm. "Jack? I could try it."

He shook his head. "I still think we should look for another way. That's pretty high. If one of us falls, it could end badly."

A deep growl echoed through the Warehouse. They all looked around but the Minotaur was nowhere to be seen. Claudia let out a breath. "Right, time's running out." She started to climb the nearest shelf.

Just a second later, Artie's hand closed around her ankle. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm jumping."

"Stop it. Right now."

She ignored him and shook off Artie's hand, climbing higher.

"Claudia," Jack said, his voice strict.

"You're all just standing around when we could be well on our way back home." She slipped but managed to hold onto the shelf.

"That's it," Jack said. The shelf wobbled and when she looked down, she saw Jack had started to follow her. She held onto the wood and couldn't climb on.

It was Gwen who intervened. "Jack, stop! It's unstable."

"Claudia," Artie said.

She reached the top and stood up. She could see the Minotaur approaching, slowly as if it was giving them time, ready to pounce the moment they started to make real progress … and stumbled when the shelf wobbled again. She glared down at Jack. "Hey, stop rocking the boat!"

He narrowed his eyes and jumped down. "You better know what you're doing."

She smiled. "I never do." She walked a few steps backwards to have a longer stretch of shelf. Then she threw a last look at the Minotaur. It had stopped and seemed to be watching her curiously. Almost as if it wanted to wait and see what she would do. She looked back towards the office, took a deep breath and started to run.

The second her feet pushed off the shelf, she knew wasn't going to make it. Her chest slammed against the edge of the balcony, winding her and she slid down. Her fingers frantically looked for purchase and hooked into the grating of the balcony floor. She tried to pull herself up, ignoring the worried cries of the others underneath her. She couldn't pull herself up. The Minotaur's steps were getting closer.

"Damn!" she screamed. "What do I do?"

Jack's voice drifted up to her. "Let go, we'll catch you!"

She heard Artie scoff. "Are you crazy? She could break her neck."

"More likely that she'll end up paralysed."

Claudia rolled her eyes. "Are you done arguing!?"

"Let yourself fall!" Jack said.

Claudia closed her eyes, tried to do it but her fingers were frozen. "I can't."

Gwen's voice sounded calm and collected. "You have to! The Minotaur's on its way. Claudia, you have to let go. Jack will catch you."

She heard Jack mutter something.

"What about ammunition?" Gwen asked.

"This is all we have. So … just in case."

Claudia gasped, trying to expel her fear by breathing it out. "Okay … okay."

"Good girl," Jack said.

Claudia rolled her eyes. "Old enough to drink," she muttered.

"Let go!"

She closed her eyes and did.

Landing in someone's arms hurt more than she would have thought, but to Jack's credit, he was very good at it, stumbling backwards and crashing against the head of a shelf – but he held her securely.

"Wow," she said.

"I've had plenty of practice in catching girls," he answered with a grin and set her down. Claudia couldn't help but notice how wonderful he smelled. He took her hand. "Let's retreat."

They started running, Artie holding up with them without a problem. Gwen had their backs, holding Jack's gun pointed at the Minotaur. Claudia doubted that it would help any.

"Right," Jack said and – suddenly – stopped.

They all looked back at the Minotaur. It had stopped, looking after them warily.

Jack grinned in triumph. "It's guarding the area surrounding the office. Nothing else."

Gwen nodded in agreement and handed Jack the revolver. "The thread has to be up there."

Claudia leaned against a shelf and took deep breath, holding her ribs.

"Are you okay?" Artie asked, worried.

She nodded. "Yeah, just got a bit winded for a minute there."

He leaned closer, his dark eyebrows pulling together disapprovingly. "That was an incredibly stupid thing to do."

"I learned from the best," she replied, smiling at him. Artie rolled his eyes. Claudia leaned her head back and looked at the ceiling. Slowly, her heartbeat was evening itself out and she calmed. Movement out of the corner of her eye startled her. She turned her head and froze. "Steve," she said. The others looked at her and then the apparition. There was Steve and he was with another man. They were standing close, staring into each other's eyes. They didn't move, though, or acknowledge their presence in any other way.

"Ianto," Jack said and then, louder, "Ianto!"

They vanished.

Gwen asked, "What was that?"

Jack looked at his wristband, pushed a few buttons and looked around before frowning at Artie. "How big exactly is this Warehouse?"

"As big as we need it to be," Artie answered. "Big."

"Bigger than the outside of it?"

Claudia frowned and tore her eyes away from where Steve had been just a minute ago. "It's built into a small mountain."

Artie asked, "Why all those questions?"

"Because my manipulator can't make sense of its surroundings and until now, that happened only in one place. This place is bigger on the inside than the outside, am I right?"

Claudia looked at Artie curiously. "I guess," he admitted. "I'm not sure."

"As big as you need it to be. That's pretty convenient. What do you do when you run out of space?"

There was silence, then Artie answered, "We never do."

Gwen crossed her arms. "What does that have to do with Ianto appearing?"

"We got a glimpse at the dimension we came from," Jack explained, "because the technology of the entertainment unit can't keep up with the size of this place. It's strained. Cracks happen. And we can use those cracks to communicate with the others."

Artie nodded and then asked, "To tell them what?"

"To tell Ianto that we're in Hell," Jack said, looking at Gwen. Her eyes widened in understanding. Jack looked back at Artie. "And to get us out."


	11. Chapter 11

**10.**

"Damn!" Myka cursed and hurried to the neutraliser pump just around the corner while Pete stared at Ianto and Steve, standing frozen in the middle of the aisle. A camera in the shelf was running, the clicking of it taking pictures loud in the otherwise quiet part of the Warehouse. Trailer barked and nipped at Pete's hand impatiently. He was the one who'd brought Myka and Pete here, alerting them that something wasn't right. Myka reappeared with a hose and Pete took it from her, pointing it at the camera while Myka ran back to the pump and activated it. Purple goo shot out of the nozzle and the camera was quickly drowned in it. It emitted bright sparks, causing Pete and Myka to turn away, and then Steve and Ianto both let out a scream and jumped away from each other.

"Oh my God," Steve muttered and sank to the floor. "Oh, God!" Trailer whimpered and licked his face. Steve grabbed his collar and pushed him away gently. Pete saw his hands shake and he looked ready to get sick.

Ianto put a hand over his mouth and turned away.

A bit breathless from their run here, Myka asked, "Are you alright?"

They looked at her, not answering. Myka's eyes widened and she nodded. "Right." She looked at the still dripping camera in the shelf. "Gerda Taro's camera."

Pete thought that it looked slightly old-fashioned, like something out of the beginning of last century. "What does it do?"

"When somebody looks into its lens, they relive all traumatic experiences in their lives. If somebody else then looks into their eyes, they relive each other's traumatic experiences."

Pete swallowed. Now he understood why Ianto and Steve seemed so utterly shaken. "Only traumatic?"

"She was a war photographer," Myka explained and Pete nodded in understanding.

Ianto sighed and turned back around to them, closing his eyes. "It was my fault. I looked into its lens. I thought artefacts only activated by touch."

"Most of them do," Myka replied. "It's okay, you couldn't have known."

Pete frowned, watching Steve still cowering on the floor. He wasn't sure but he thought he saw tears in his eyes. "Steve?"

Ianto answered instead. "Yeah. I have some pretty bad memories. Sorry about that."

Myka looked at him questioningly but Ianto ignored her.

He crouched in front of Steve who was getting his breathing back under control. "Sorry."

xxx

Jack's plan sounded simple enough. Artie wasn't quite so sure if it would be so easy, though. Things like that sometimes were unpredictable, really, but it was the only plan they had. "These cracks appear at regular intervals, but in different parts of the Warehouse," Jack said, studying his wristband. "They emit energy. Will the Warehouse systems alarm the others of that?"

Artie grimaced. "I'm not sure. If what you say is true and the artefact is alien, the sensors might just not react to the energy readings."

Claudia put her hands on her hips. "But we've got motion sensors and they're good. I know because I just upgraded them. They're modified to give off an alarm every time someone the system doesn't recognize moves outside of the office."

"Just at night," Artie corrected.

"No, always." She looked at Artie with her eyebrows raised. "I just said, I upgraded them."

Despite trying to remain calm, Artie couldn't help but ask, "How come I didn't know about this?"

"That's because I'm not done with it. Me and Steve are the only ones getting the alerts and I'm still doing some test runs. Right now, the alarms are sent to our cells as texts."

Artie stared at her. "You didn't clear that with me."

"Would you have said yes?"

"No."

Claudia's face darkened. "You never do. I always have to force you to accept changes and that only works if I present a working prototype."

Artie was getting really irritated now. "The system is just fine. Why do you have that constant need to tinker with what took me years to establish?"

"Because we needed an update. McPherson, HG Wells … do I need to say more?"

Gwen cleared her throat and raised her hands placatingly. "I think we're getting a bit off topic here."

Claudia bit her lip and ducked her head. Artie sighed. "Right." God, he was hungry. And that was making him snappy.

Claudia looked up at them again. She didn't look appeased at all but she didn't try to argue further. "Steve gets a text whenever someone the face recognition software can't recognize is moving around the Warehouse."

Jack frowned. "Yes, but that system can't predetermine a crack and they last only seconds. By the time they reach us, we will be gone again."

Artie knew what Claudia was thinking about when he saw her thoughtful face. "They've got the Durational Spectrometer. It enables them to see what happened in the last six hours. They can use that to see us."

"But they can't hear us," Jack said.

Artie frowned at him. Playing devil's advocate seemed to be a kind of hobby for the Captain. Claudia spared him finding a suitably sarcastic answer by saying, "Pete reads lips."

Jack nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Well, that's our plan then. We go to the cracks my Manipulator indicates. It would be best to split up. We can cover more ground that way. Gwen and I are on the comms and they work in here, so we can stay in contact."

"It's a shame I can't just call Steve," Claudia said.

"Yeah, but transdimensional communication is too complicated for a normal mobile. We're lucky our comms work in here." He looked down at his wristband. "My Manipulator indicates that there are currently two points in this room that are weak enough to cause cracks. Gwen, you take Claudia. Artie and I will take the other way."

Artie saw Claudia glance at him and nodded his consent. Somehow, it meant a lot to him right now that she still looked at him as her boss, even though the way she was standing there with her arms crossed and a pout on her face indicated that there'd be hell to pay later. Experience taught him that she wouldn't talk to him for a few days probably. The way he felt now, that was actually quite a nice thought. It was hard to get it through Claudia's head sometimes that he was just worried. She'd played around with Warehouse technology from the first day she'd started working here and more than once, she'd paid the price with small injuries or embarrassing situations. It was a wonder nothing worse had happened and Artie would gladly keep it that way. But Claudia was headstrong, highly intelligent, independent and young and that was a dangerous combination. And Artie felt responsible for her, not just because her brother expected him to keep her safe but also because she'd grown on him, as weird as that was.

Jack let Gwen take a look at his Manipulator, probably showing her the way to one of the cracks and then said, "I'm going to direct you to the next one."

Gwen nodded and Jack put a hand on the small of her back, leaning down to whisper something to her. Gwen nodded again and answered, "You too."

Artie looked at Claudia with a weak smile and got a hesitant one in return, then they parted ways.

"So," Artie said when they started to walk towards their spot. He trusted Jack, who was looking at his Mainpulator and making seemingly random turns along their way, to take the lead. "What exactly will happen after we gave them the code word?"

"It's not a code word," Jack answered.

"'Lucifers' sounds like a code word."

Jack smiled wryly. "A little while ago, we had trouble with alien lucifers that banned people into an alternate dimension similar to this one. Only that dimension was designed to be Hell. When you got trapped there, bad things happened. The worst things that could happen and then you were trapped until you were dead."

"What kind of things?"

"It depended on the person. When I got trapped, I was told that two of my friends were dead, I shot Gwen and … things happened between me and Ianto. In the end, they got me out. Or rather, Ianto did by forgiving me for my sins. We don't know what exactly caused the lucifers to let me go and maybe we will never know. Fact is that Ianto's way to get me out wasn't planned. Originally, our technician Toshiko wrote a computer program to pull me back. I'm hoping that Ianto can use it to get us back home."

"I guess that Toshiko is one the friends who died."

Jack paused. "Yes."

Artie nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." Jack's face was a mask Artie recognized only all too well. He carried it often enough.

"I know how it feels, losing people. I'm scared for my agents all the time. I know they're adults and can handle themselves but still ..."

"You feel responsible," Jack finished the sentence.

"Yes, even for their private life. I mean, Pete and Myka, they could do with a life away from the Warehouse. And Claudia and Steve are young – they should be out at parties every night, chasing boys and having fun. Instead, they deal with all this. At the same time, I'm glad they're here."

"It took Gwen a long time to find out where her priorities should be. Having a normal life away from Torchwood isn't easy but her husband can handle it. I guess it's good that he knows what she does for a living," Jack explained. "I feel guilty because of Ianto sometimes. If he's not at work, he's with me and I'm always on duty. It's … hard." He shook his head with a smile. "I tried to send them away, though, and they wouldn't budge. It's their decision in the end."

Artie nodded gravely. "Yes, it is."

xxx

Ianto rubbed the iron banister separating the balcony outside the office from the vast Warehouse. The metal warmed under his touch but it couldn't chase away the feeling of coldness and dread in his stomach. He stared at the rows of shelves, trying to find a way, fishing for an idea, and he was sure that there was something lurking in the back of his mind, he just didn't know what it was.

"I'm so sorry," somebody said behind him and he turned around to see Steve at the door to the office, hands in his jeans pockets and shoulders pulled up.

Ianto frowned. "What for?"

Steve smiled helplessly. "I don't even know where to start. Lisa, Torchwood One, cannibals … Toshiko and Owen. I honestly don't know. There's just too much." He leaned against the banister next to Ianto, staring out across the Warehouse as well.

"It's just a glimpse," Ianto said. "All the bad things that happened. There were plenty of good things as well."

"Are there?"

"You must know," Ianto answered, looking at him searchingly. "You lost your sister, you had bad experiences because of your sexuality, but there must have been good times as well. Boyfriends, friends, promotions ..."

"I didn't really have a boyfriend. Just, you know, a date here and there, some short flings ..." He shrugged. "Anything permanent was a risk of being found out. Some of my colleagues were homophobic and they didn't really like me because of my knack for being able to tell when somebody's lying, I just … was afraid to risk anything, I guess. My life doesn't have many bright spots."

"You don't need many if they're really bright," Ianto replied. "At the moment, I have Gwen's friendship and Rhys's and I've got Jack. Everything else is kind of drowned out by Owen and Tosh's deaths. But those people give me enough brightness to go on." He hesitated for a moment. "And I don't think that Pete and Myka don't like you, by the way."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Man, you saw that too?"

"It's pulling you down at the moment, making you wonder if you've wasted a possible career at the ATF for this so, yes, I saw that, too." He smiled. "You know, I was kind of a loner in my team for a while. I blamed them but realized somewhere along the way that I was to blame as well because I closed myself off from them. I stopped and it got better."

Steve sighed. "You know, being able to tell when somebody lies makes you wary of people."

"Maybe you should stop assuming the worst when you catch somebody lying, then."

Steve looked at him and his blue eyes brightened. "Maybe I should." He pulled his mobile out of his pocket and glanced at it, then he snorted.

"What is it?" Ianto asked.

"Alarms. With you lot walking through the Warehouse, the face recognition software is getting agitated. 34 alarms." He sighed. "This could get annoying when we've got visitors. I should talk to Claudia about that."

Ianto nodded, looking back to the Warehouse again. "And you will."

xxx

Gwen glanced at Claudia while they kept walking down the aisle. Her face was set into a frown, her posture tense, her hands balled to fists. Frustration was evident in her eyes. Gwen felt compelled to try and calm her down. "Does this happen often?"

Claudia glanced at her and Gwen clarified, "You and Artie fighting."

"That wasn't a fight," Claudia answered. "That was just him being stubborn and not wanting anything to change." She sighed. "I do a lot, you know. It's like he doesn't even see it sometimes."

"I'm sure he does," Gwen answered.

Claudia shrugged but she relaxed a bit. "I'm hungry," she said.

"Yeah, me too. I don't think I ever went this long without at least a chocolate bar."

"I did. Even longer sometimes," Claudia replied softly. Gwen looked at her, surprised. Claudia shrugged. "For a while there. But now I'm kind of used to Leena cooking or Pete and Artie always carrying food around."

Gwen swallowed, ignoring the last part of Claudia's answer. "What happened?"

Claudia looked at her and her expression told Gwen that she really didn't want to talk about it and that she wished she'd never mentioned it. "Stuff," she answered. "Lived rough for a while."

Gwen nodded, backing off. She hadn't seen many homeless kids in her time as a Police Constable, but there'd been some. She had difficulties banning the pictures from her head now that they'd been awoken.

"Look," Claudia suddenly said and pointed down the aisle.

And there it was. A slight change, but it was there. It still looked like the same aisle, but the shelves were stacked high with all kinds of artefacts, crates and boxes, not just the identical crates that were typical for this dimension. It was like looking through a window and when Gwen narrowed her eyes and focussed she could see a slight turbulence in the air where the dimensions met.

"What do we do?" Claudia asked.

Gwen swallowed and stepped closer. She didn't dare touch the crack, having no idea what it would do. She looked back at Claudia. "Well, your motion sensors must have picked me up by now, so I'll just … keep moving, I guess." She started to wave.

Claudia stopped next to her. "Well, then, let's get our message across."


	12. Chapter 12

**11.**

Steve's cell beeped, interrupting the quiet that reigned the Warehouse office while they were having lunch at the round table. Myka was a bit worried about Ianto only picking at his slice. He seemed deep in thought as if he was puzzling over what to do next. Rhys, meanwhile, seemed a bit discouraged. Myka could relate. She herself didn't feel as confident any more as she had when they'd started working the problem. Artie's input was sorely missing and she couldn't help but worry about him and Claudia. For instance, if they had any kind of food wherever they were.

Steve's cell beeped again.

Myka glanced up at him from her slice of pizza and frowned. Steve wasn't one to get texts during work … or at all. Sometimes, she wondered if he had left any friends behind when joining the Warehouse. She wasn't the most sociable person herself but even she'd managed to stay in touch with her former colleagues-come-friends from the Secret Service.

Pete shot Steve a look and seemed a bit amused about the fact that Steve flat-out refused to look at his phone. "What's up? You got a boyfriend or something trying to reach you?"

"Sorry," Steve answered and shook his head. "Probably my mother." He continued to ignore the cell, though.

Pete raised an eyebrow. "I get the feeling there's not much love lost between the two of you." He grinned. "Let me talk to her. Moms love me, we'll have this straightened out in no time at all."

Steve wasn't the only one glaring at Pete. Myka sent him a warning look as well. She could relate just how difficult a relationship to the parents could be. She had a lot of problems with her father. Most of them had been straightened out by now but still.

Pete raised his hands in defence. "Or I'll just mind my own business," he muttered into his pizza.

The cell beeped again.

Steve sighed, annoyed himself now. "I'll switch it off." He got the phone out of his pocket and then paused, staring at the display. "It's not my mom. It's the FRA."

"The what?" Rhys asked.

"Yeah," Pete echoed, "the what?"

"The Face Recognition Alarm. We've got an intruder alarm for the nights," Myka answered with a frown at Pete. "It's on page twenty in the handbook, Pete. Seriously, three years and you haven't even reached page twenty?"

"As I told you: waiting for the movie," Pete answered. Steve looked at Myka in alarm. "Claudia updated the software. It's running 24/7 now, not just in the night. Only me and her are getting the texts, though. It's still being tested." He checked his messages. "There were ten alarms in the last hour. Nobody was down there within the last hour."

Ianto leaned forwards, his blue eyes wide with excitement, even though his face didn't give any emotion away. "What does that mean?"

Myka answered, "That means that something down there is moving."

Pete looked at her in disbelief. "Did you take lessons in being creepy from Mrs. Frederick?"

"We should check it out," Leena interrupted him.

Steve shook his head. "Whatever it is, it's moving through the Warehouse. We can't predict where it will go, we only know where it was last registered. By the time we get there, it could be gone."

For one moment, they were all quiet, thinking about it, and then Pete suddenly said, "Hey, hey, hey! I've got an idea."

Everybody looked at him.

Pete was grinning like a lunatic and he seemed honestly surprised. "Seriously?" he asked, staring at Myka, Steve and Leena. "Am I the only Warehouse Agent thinking of the Durational Spectrometer?"

Myka sighed and bit her lip. Great, he would never let her forget that he had had an idea when she'd come up empty ...

xxx

The Durational Spectrometer indeed made it possible for them to see what had happened in the small aisle way off to the side of the Warehouse. It took Pete a while to find the short moment they got to see Gwen and Claudia. One minute, everything looked normal, and the next, they appeared out of nowhere, Gwen waving with both arms while Claudia was speaking soundlessly. The relief all of them felt was palpable, for just a second, then they were gone again.

Rhys was glad to see Gwen uninjured and apparently perfectly fine but he also noticed how tired her face looked. "Why can't we hear them?" he asked.

Myka crossed her arms. "It only displays images, no sound."

Pete rewound the image and played it again, looking at the women with a focused frown on his forehead. He was especially concentrating on Claudia, whispering to himself.

"What is she saying?" Rhys asked.

They vanished again.

"Pete?" Myka said.

"I have to watch it again." He rewound the images anew and stepped closer, completely focused on Claudia, then he switched off the Spectrometer. "She saying: 'Jack said that we're in Hell and that Ianto would know what to do. Lucifers.'"

"That's what she said?" Myka asked, looking at Ianto who turned away abruptly, running a hand through his hair.

Pete nodded.

Rhys was impressed. "You read her lips."

"My sister's deaf, it's useful," Pete said with a shrug, "and it looks good on the CV."

"So," Steve said, turning to Ianto, "do you know what to do?"

Ianto turned back around to them and then, to Rhys's relief, he nodded. "I need some things, though."

Myka stepped closer to him. "Whatever it is, we can get it."

"A computer, a strong internet connection …" Ianto hesitated for a moment, grimacing, then he added, "And a phone call."

xxx

What Ianto did with the program he'd downloaded from Torchwood's server looked very complicated to Myka. She exchanged impressed looks with Leena while Pete was staring at the screen as if he was able to understand what Ianto was doing. Rhys and Steve had left a little while ago to pick something up for Ianto that he'd promised he'd explain later. The phone call he'd requested had lasted half an hour and had dug a frustrated grimace into Ianto's features. All she knew was that he'd talked to someone military, as the rank 'Colonel' had been uttered several times. Ianto had hung up looking like he had a migraine but telling them that he'd succeeded and giving Steve and Rhys directions.

Now, he heaved a sigh and leaned back in the chair, making it creak loudly in the quiet office. "Okay, everything's online."

Pete crossed his arms. "So, what happens now?"

"We have to wait. I stashed the particle consumption in the system and as soon as a new crack shows, the system can lock onto the particles. Then we can stabilize the crack and they can come back."

Myka nodded in understanding. "Alright, but how do we stabilize it? I don't think the computers can handle that."

Ianto smiled. "That's why I needed the phone call. Rhys and Steve are picking up what we need as we speak."

xxx

The officer getting out of the black, nondescript car was imposing to say the least. Broad-chested, a strict face, the dark hair cut short underneath the red beret and the green uniform bearing several stripes and medals. He looked around the wasteland and the dusty, abandoned parking space they'd decided to meet at and raised one dark eyebrow at Rhys and Steve, while the just as black, just as nondescript van following the car parked and a soldier in desert camouflage jumped out of it. Steve felt a bit embarrassed by his small red car and a bit intimidated. According to Rhys, UNIT was a military organization dealing with alien occurrences. They were highly trained and not to be messed with – and Jack Harkness didn't like them very much.

The officer joined Rhys and Steve. His dark, piercing eyes looked at them as if he wasn't quite sure they were the ones who'd called in UNIT's help. His name tag read _Colonel Julian Preston_. "Torchwood?"

"Yes," Rhys said, straightening his shoulders. "I'm a Torchwood agent. I'm, like ..." He flailed and finished lamely, "Ianto Jones sent us to pick it up."

"What's Torchwood doing here?" Preston asked mistrustfully. "America's UNIT's turf."

"Well … that's a secret," Rhys answered.

Preston's eyes narrowed. "We have no problem cooperating with you and loaning you our possessions, but I need a bit more than 'it's secret'."

Steve thought he might as well try to work his very own charm and got his ID out of his jeans pocket. "Agent Jinks, ATF."

Preston's attention turned to him. "ATF?"

"Yeah, Torchwood is consulting with us on a top-secret mission concerning national security." Steve felt his own heart pounding against his rib cage and cursed the fact that for someone who was so good at identifying a lie, he was a terrible liar himself.

Preston stared at Rhys as if he couldn't quite believe that a harmless-looking guy like him would be involved in something like that. "National security?"

Before Steve could think of another bad lie, Rhys spoke up. "Well, more like ..." He paused and then asked softly, "Can I count on your discretion?"

Preston nodded. Steve was intrigued. He had no idea what Rhys was on about, he just hoped that he would know to keep the Warehouse quiet. As much as all three of them were involved in secret affairs, Steve wasn't sure UNIT was allowed to know about the Warehouse.

Rhys said, "It's more like Captain Harkness got himself into trouble and we're helping him get out."

Preston stared at him and then, unexpectedly, he laughed. "Now, _that_ I believe." He looked back over his shoulder and nodded to the soldier standing by the van. The soldier saluted and then left his position to hop into the car Preston had arrived in. Steve guessed that meant they got the van with the device in it. Preston confirmed his assumption just a second later. "This is on loan only. We want it to be returned before you lot leave the country."

"No problem," Rhys replied and smiled. "We'll call you."

"Tell Captain Harkness to call _me_ – Julian from Toronto," Preston said and, with a wistful smile, added, "He promised to do so five years ago and not a peep."

With that, he got into his car and drove off.

Steve and Rhys stared after him until the car was just a small object far away on the straight road cutting through the Badlands. Finally, Rhys nodded. "Sounds like Jack."

Curiously, Steve went to the van and opened the doors. The sun lightened the interior, showing them a big, rectangular wooden crate that barely fit into the compartment. Black, bold letters on the wood announced _UNIT USA, Object 0935_. Steve frowned. When Rhys stopped next to him to look into the van as well, he asked, "So what have we got here?"

"Something UNIT built with alien technology," Rhys answered. Steve raised one eyebrow at him, sceptical. Rhys shrugged. "No kidding," he said. "It's mostly Sontaran, Ianto said. They try to invade all the time." He nodded gravely as if he knew everything about every alien invasion that had ever taken place.

"Right," Steve said and slammed the doors shut. "Then let's get it back to the Warehouse."


	13. Chapter 13

**12.**

"I have to warn you," Ianto said, tapping away on the laptop he'd unpacked and hooked up to the computer half an hour ago. "This is going to take a lot of power out of your systems."

Myka crossed her arms. "How much power are we talking about?"

"Enough to advise you to make sure that critical systems are hooked up to back-up generators." He looked at her as if he was hoping they even had back-up generators. Myka was pretty sure that Artie had mentioned something like that, but she wasn't quite sure any more. The technical jobs were more Artie and Claudia's.

Leena stepped closer and said, "The Dark Vault's secure and that's pretty much the only place that has to be."

Myka shuddered a bit. The Dark Vault was where the most dangerous artefacts were kept. It was locked away behind heavy doors but that would probably not help them, should the artefacts be able to escape their cells. There was a reason they were considered to be the most dangerous of their kind.

"Okay!" Rhys said, barging into the office from the balcony. He was wiping his hands on a rag and a light sheen of sweat covered his face. "We're done."

Ianto nodded at him, slapped the laptop shut and disconnected it from the computer. "I'm done as well. We can get started."

Myka and Leena followed them down the stairs to the empty area underneath the balcony, just before the first rows of shelves started. There, the men had assembled the transdimensional portal. I was a bit taller than Pete and round … it looked like it came straight out of a cheap sci-fi show. Pete and Steve were busy packing away tools and what looked like a complicated assembling instruction.

Pete was grinning at her like a kid on Christmas morning. "I just built a transdimensional portal. Take that, Kirk!"

Steve raised an eyebrow. "All we did was arrange the parts and bolt them together. It's not like you built it from scratch."

Pete glared at him. "Don't take away my 15 minutes."

Ianto had already connected the laptop to the device and was busy starting up the program. Rhys was hovering behind him, nervously trying to understand what exactly Ianto was doing. He didn't seem to succeed.

Myka looked at Leena who was staring at Ianto with a focused frown. Myka stepped closer to her. "What is it?"

"His aura," she said. "He's nervous, scared … he's not sure this will work."

"What other choice do we have but to try?" Myka answered. Leena turned her head to look at her and her green eyes were sad. She didn't answer.

"Right," Ianto said, putting a headset into his ear. "Jack and Gwen are wearing their comm links, so it should be easy to tell them what we're doing."

Steve frowned. "What exactly will this transport thing do?"

"It's made for transport from a space ship to a planet but the computer program will enable it to cut through all layers between the two dimensions and get them back. To do this, it will track the particles that the transdimensional trip Claudia and Artie did left behind. I modified your artefact activity sensors to find them and had the program log on to them."

Myka sighed. "Okay, just … just get started."

Ianto hit a button and the device hummed to life. He stepped back and put his hands on his hips. His fingers gripped the denim of his jeans tightly, giving away just how tense he was. "Right, it's going to take a few minutes to track the particles, then the transporter will log on and … open the door."

"How long will this take?" Myka asked.

The lights flickered and Ianto looked at her. "How long can you give me?"

xxx

Jack was staring at the office far away and high up, wondering how they could overcome this last distance and get inside to get to the thread without being killed. They were taking a break from relaying the message to the teams on the other side and had met up to talk about their possibilities. There wasn't much talking happening, though. Their motivation and morale had reached a low and Jack couldn't think of anything that he could say to encourage the others. He felt just as hopeless.

Of course, Ianto took that as his cue to re-awaken hope. Jack's comm link crackled and then Ianto's voice filtered through. _"__Jack, Gwen, it's Ianto."_

Jack turned to Gwen, just to make sure he wasn't hearing things, but she was letting out a small squeal – that she would probably deny of ever having uttered – and answered, "Ianto, thank God."

Claudia and Artie looked at them with relieved expressions and they all crowded together. Jack touched his comm link, a symbolic attempt to get Ianto closer, and said, "Ianto, good to hear you."

_"__Likewise, sir."_ The formal title was laced with affection and relief and made Jack smile. Ianto immediately continued, _"__We don't have much time. We found a way out for you. There's a transdimensional portal set up underneath the balcony."_

"Underneath the balcony?" Jack asked and looked towards the office. "We have a problem with that location."

There was a pause, almost non-existent, but Ianto only ever hesitated for a second before making a decision. That was one of the reasons Jack was relieved he had him on the team. _"__Is it problematic or impossible?"_

Jack bit his lip. Ianto had to have a good reason for asking. He probably couldn't change the location without it taking a lot longer. "Problematic," he decided.

_"__Opening the portal anew would take at least two hours."_

"We'll take what we can get right now," Jack said, looking at the others with a smile. "We'll have to make it quick. Be prepared, though. There might be something big and hungry in our wake."

He could practically see Ianto swallowing and nodding, his young face earnest. _"__We came prepared."_

"Never doubted it. How long do we have?"

_"__We estimate about ten minutes before the power required will run low."_

"Okay, see you on the other side."

_"__We will."_

Jack disconnected and looked at Artie and Claudia. "They've got a door open."

Artie frowned in confusion. "A door?"

Jack waved the question away. "Later. Thing is, we've got ten minutes to reach it and it's underneath the balcony."

Claudia swallowed. "That's where the Minotaur is."

"We'll have to make it quick."

Gwen nodded in determination while Claudia and Artie looked at each other. Artie took a deep breath. "We will."

"The Minotaur will try to catch up to us as soon as we get too close. Let's split up and make it harder for it to decide who to take out. Artie and me will approach from one direction, Gwen and Claudia from the other. Time's running now." He smiled encouragingly. "Let's beat it."

xxx

Ianto got up from his crouching position next to the laptop. "They'll try to make it." The lights flickered and he spared the lamps a worried glance.

Rhys was concerned as well. He really hoped that this plan would work out. And he wanted to know if Gwen was okay, but Leena beat him to it. "Are they alright?"

Ianto sighed. He looked exhausted. Rhys realized that he'd never seen him like that before. Tired, sure, but this exhausted? Never. "I didn't ask, they didn't tell. We don't have a lot of time. Jack would have mentioned it, though, so I guess they're okay." He turned towards the stairs leading up to the balcony.

Myka asked, "Where are you going?"

"To get something. You should all take a few steps back and hide. Jack said something's there with them and that it's big. It could come through."

Rhys didn't like the sound of that at all. "Something?"

"Something big," Ianto answered with a nod and hurried up the stairs.

Steve exchanged worried glances with Myka, while Pete let out a loud breath. "Well, let's do as the expert says then," he suggested. "Let's hide."


	14. Chapter 14

**13.**

Jack ran down the aisle towards the office, Artie just behind him, keeping up well despite the tiredness hanging on his features. Too bad the Minotaur had chosen them to chase. It was behind them, roaring and running, its steps stomping down the aisle behind them. There was still some space between the being and the men, though, so Jack felt positive that they were going to make it. They reached the end of the aisle, stumbling into the open space beneath the office's balcony and there it was. It was like a picture hanging in the air, showing a part of the Warehouse that looked more like the one Artie and Claudia had described to them than the one they were trapped in right now. He saw movement on the other side and then a brunette woman with long hair, who ducked behind a low wall of crates – a makeshift defence against the Minotaur. Jack thought that it was kind of ridiculous to expect to be safe behind some wooden crates, but then again, they didn't know what they could be up against. He ushered Artie forward, who had started to hesitate at the sight of the portal, and pushed him through.

Gwen and Claudia chose that moment to approach from the other direction. The Minotaur was getting closer. Jack pulled his Webley. "Get through, hurry! I'll be right behind you."

Gwen looked startled. "What are you doing?"

"Testing a theory." He turned away, leaving Gwen and Claudia to find their way through, and stared at the Minotaur in determination. It ran towards him and roared, lifting one claw to strike. Jack screamed, "Stop!"

To his surprise, the Minotaur paused, hesitated.

Jack used that to his advantage. "We can give you a way out but you have to stop." Jack kept looking the Minotaur straight in the dark eyes and there was something there that he knew too well. "You've been a prisoner here for far too long, haven't you? It's time that you got out, but I can't let you go when you're dangerous."

The Minotaur stared at him and Jack wondered where it came from. It reminded him of Abbadon and other creatures he'd heard of. Creatures who were part of legends and truths as different as the cultures telling them. But one thing was always identical: Those creatures were prisoners, chained in the core of planets, banned in the Rift between time and space. Marked as monsters. But if there was one thing he'd learned, there was hardly a being out there who didn't have a vulnerable side, who didn't crave compassion in some way.

He tried a hesitant smile. "Believe me, I know how it feels," he said. "Being chained, alone, for a very long time. Being buried for even longer. I know."

The Minotaur looked at him, its bull face seemed thoughtful, its eyes sad.

Jack stepped closer. "The question is, are you too far gone?" he whispered.

For a long moment, none of them moved, then the Minotaur's eyes hardened again and it raised its claw anew, something feral and deadly in its eyes when it struck. Jack barely managed to duck away, backing up towards the portal … and running into someone. He turned around, grabbing Claudia's arms to keep her from falling. "What are you still doing here?" he asked, shocked.

"I … Jack!" she screamed. He saw it coming from the corner of his eye and grabbed Claudia, pushing her out of the way. The claw caught him straight into the chest and that was the last thing he felt before he died.

xxx

"Artie!" Pete called in relief, watching him stumble through the portal. He waved him closer and Artie hurried over to join them behind the crates, looking over his shoulder every now and then to check on the portal. Pete was happy to see that Artie seemed unharmed, just tired.

Myka was a bit more enthusiastic and pulled him into a quick hug. "You okay?" she asked.

"Just fine."

Leena hugged him as well. "I'm glad."

Steve nodded at him before he focused his attention on the portal again, just like Rhys, who was muttering something under his breath that sounded like "come on, come on, already". Pete turned his attention back to the portal as well. He could only see a small part of what was going on on the other side: A man in a blue coat was stopping a few feet from the portal, waving frantically. Then a woman and Claudia appeared. The woman immediately ran through the portal and Rhys leapt up from his hiding spot.

She flew straight into his arms and they ducked again, still locked in their relieved embrace. But the woman – Gwen, Pete reminded himself – soon broke away and looked towards the portal in concern. "Where's Claudia?"

Looking stunned, Steve answered, "She hasn't come through." Pete followed his confused gaze and saw Claudia standing with her back to the portal, watching something happening that they couldn't see. The man in the coat had vanished from sight.

Artie got up abruptly. "What the hell is she waiting for?"

Pete realized what he was about to do and grabbed his vest. "Hey! Don't."

But Steve got up as well. "Why hasn't she come through yet?"

He made for the portal, but Rhys managed to reach his arm and pulled him back behind the crates. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to get her."

Gwen shook her head. "You have no idea if this is only one-way and there's a Minotaur waiting on the other side. You can't go there."

And then suddenly – while Pete was still trying to remember what exactly a Minotaur was – it had crossed through the portal and was standing there, towering right in front of them. It was tall enough to almost reach the high ceiling, its body was that of a man but the head … that of a bull … and it looked straight at them.

"Oh, crap!" Pete said. He grabbed his Tesla but the small stun gun seemed highly inappropriate in the face of something like this.

"Bloody hell," Rhys echoed Pete's sentiment.

Pete looked around but there really was nothing close by that could take out a big monster. He glared at Artie. "You insist on keeping the harmless artefacts close to the office, now see what that gets us."

"Yes," Artie replied, irritated, "I should have expected a Minotaur to turn up in the Warehouse!"

It stepped towards the group and Pete was just about to suggest running when a loud bang was heard and the Minotaur jerked. It turned around. Blood was flowing freely from a sizeable wound in the back of its head. It groaned, looking at the balcony to Ianto who was carrying a ridiculously huge gun and the expression of someone determined to face death. He shot a second time and the Minotaur collapsed, burying the portal underneath its body. The crunching noise left no hope of the technology having survived and the Warehouse's power briefly dimmed before surging back to life.

For a moment, all of them were quiet.

Then Steve asked breathlessly, "Did anyone see what happened to Claudia?"

Gwen whispered, "They didn't come through."

Rhys put an arm around her shoulder. "God, I hope so."

Pete found himself hoping the same because the only place they could be at the moment was underneath the massive body of the Minotaur.

The stunned silence was broken by Ianto's hurried steps on the stairs leading down and Artie's angry voice. "What did you do?"

"It was going to kill you," Ianto answered.

"But Claudia's still trapped over there!"

"We'll find another way to reach her." Ianto rearranged the gun to hang at his back. It still looked too big for a human. Maybe it hadn't been created for one.

"How dare you-"

Artie was interrupted by Gwen putting her hand on his shoulder. "He's right. It was getting ready to kill us all."

Artie stared at her. "What about Claudia?"

"He said we'll find a way and we will. On the plus side, the Minotaur is no danger over there any more. That gives them new possibilities."

Ianto threw Gwen a grateful look and she pulled him into a tight hug.

Softly, he asked, "Jack tried to stop it?"

"You know Jack," Gwen answered with a smile.

Rhys patted Ianto's shoulder. "We'll get him back, mate."

Artie turned to Myka. "Who is that idiot?"

Before Myka could answer, Steve said, "That's Jack's lover. He wouldn't have shot if he'd seen another way out. He was telling the truth. That thing was about to kill us." They looked over at the Torchwood team. Gwen was hugging Ianto again, kissing his cheek firmly. Ianto turned away, staring at pieces of the broken device littering the floor. He crouched down and folded his hands, leaning his forehead on his entwined fingers. He was absolutely shattered, Pete realized. He really wouldn't have taken the shot if there had been any other way. Artie seemed to see that now as well, because he turned away and rubbed over his beard, probably trying to come up with a new plan already.

Ianto got up and kicked one of the parts. It slid over the floor and stopped close to Leena. She was sitting next to the Minotaur's head and her hand was carefully carding through the thick, dark hair of its bull's face. Pete frowned and joined her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Alright?" he asked.

Leena looked up at him and there were tears in her green eyes. "Its aura," she whispered. "It was so tortured and lonely that its aura was …" She stopped and got up, reaching for Pete with a sob. Pete pulled her into his arms, his fingers tangling in her dark curls. "The saddest aura I've ever seen," Leena whispered. "And then, when Ianto shot it … it was happy."

Pete stared at the Minotaur. "You think it attacked on purpose, so that we'd kill it?"

"I think it would have continued to attack until somebody would have."


	15. Chapter 15

**14.**

Claudia stared at Jack. He was leaning against a shelf, almost as if he'd fallen asleep if it weren't for the blood soaking his light-blue shirt and the unnatural angle his neck was in.

He was clearly dead.

She took a step back. Tears burned her eyes but she couldn't blink, couldn't look away. Her vision swam, became unfocussed, and she pressed her hands on her mouth to stifle a sob. In the silence of the alternate Warehouse, any sound right now would seem inappropriate, would shatter her resolve not to cry. She didn't even think about the Minotaur, about the portal, about going back, didn't know how to face the others, knowing what she was responsible for.

It was her fault, right? She'd distracted him, stood in his way out and the last thing he'd done in response was protect her.

Claudia took a deep breath and swallowed before approaching Jack carefully. "I'm sorry," she whispered and crouch down before him. Would Gwen be angry, she wondered. And how disappointed would Artie be, once again seeing proof for her inability to just keep her mouth shut and do as she was told?

And how could she forgive herself?

The sound of Jack uttering a loud gasp cut through the silence and he jerked upright. Claudia screamed, trying to get to her feet by instinct, but tripping and falling against the shelf behind her. She screamed again, feeling like she had to or she would burst, but the sound came out strangled and breathless, her lungs just as paralysed as the rest of her body. Jack looked at her, then at the blood. He raised a hand in her direction. "It's alright."

She stared at him, breathless and shocked, thoughts running through her head at lightning speed. This was impossible, death was final and unchangeable and he didn't even have some kind of artefact on him that would help him overcome it. Or did he? Her mind started to go through every artefact she knew but she was too stunned to do anything beyond staring at Jack who was looking at her with his hand still raised placatingly. And all she could say was, "Dude … you were dead!"

"Yes," Jack replied calmly and a small smile tugged at his lips. "Yes, I was. But now I'm not."

"That's impossible."

"You just saw it happen." He grinned wryly. "And look who's talking with your kind of job."

Claudia swallowed. There was no reason not to believe Jack. There was no reason to assume he was playing some kind of trick on her. He'd saved her life after all. "What did you use?"

He raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I'm just curious," Claudia answered. "What kind of artefact is able to do this? Or is it alien technology?"

"It's nothing," Jack answered. "It's just … me."

"What? You had an accident in a laboratory? Got bitten by a spider?"

Jack chuckled. "Nothing that simple, I'm afraid."

"You're an alien?"

Jack hesitated for just a fraction of a second, but Claudia noticed.

"OMG, you're an alien!"

"I'm not an alien!" He sighed. "I wasn't exactly born on Earth, either, though."

"You're Superman!"

"I'd like to think I have the chin for it," Jack answered and winked at her.

She laughed. "Freaky," she said.

"I admit, yes, it is," Jack replied with a nod.

"And kind of cool."

"That, it's not." He sighed deeply and got up, stretching and rolling his neck. Then he held out a hand for Claudia to take and pulled her to her feet. She looked at the blood on his shirt and he gave an almost embarrassed smile. "Unfortunately, my clothes can't do what my body can."

"Does this happen often?"

"Being mauled by a Minotaur?" Jack shook his head. "This was only the second time. Dying? It happens."

He shrugged and Claudia shuddered at the almost casual gesture he made in connection to him dying. She swallowed, not sure if she was allowed to ask. "Do they know?"

"Yes," he answered earnestly. "Yes, they do." Then he looked up at the office, clearly intent on changing the topic. "So I guess we have to climb up there and get the thread?" His eyes widened in sudden realization. "Where's the-"

"Gone. It went through. And the portal's closed." That much, she'd seen before she'd realized that Jack had fallen. The Minotaur had left and a few moments later, the portal had collapsed. Claudia bit her lip and crossed her arms. "Do you think they're okay?"

"I'm sure they are," he answered with that tone of voice that was confident and calming at once and did wonders for her morale. He looked at the office, then at Claudia. "I guess we better not try jumping again."

"After the huge success last time?" Claudia asked and rolled her eyes. "Puh-leaze."

Jack looked around. "Well, we've got something we didn't have before."

"What's that?"

"Time," he said and grinned, "and we've got crates. A lot of crates."

Claudia smiled. "I like the way you think."

"I aim to please." He winked at her and she blushed.

xxx

Gwen stopped in the door to the office and watched Ianto, who was leaning on the rail of the balcony, staring at the rows of shelves as if looking for something. Or someone. He looked young in jeans and the hoodie, not like the competent and professional Ianto she knew: The bloke who was able to keep his suit clean despite Weevil hunts, alien invasions and an overly adventurous lover. Sometimes, she wondered about him and Jack, about how a relationship between two so emotionally closed off men could even work. They always seemed content with each other, though, never showing that anything was amiss between them while Gwen sometimes came to work ranting about dishwasher duty and dirty laundry left on the bathroom floor. She wondered if Jack and Ianto ever had rows like that. They surely didn't let it show if they did.

She stepped out on the balcony and let the door close softly, locking out the report Artie was giving the others about what had happened in the other dimension. She stopped next to Ianto and leaned on the rail as well. His face was thoughtful, earnest – a typical expression for him. She couldn't read him, wasn't able to see what he felt and feared that was a bad sign. Clearing her throat, she asked, "Alright?"

He nodded. "I hate waiting around."

"Yeah, the hardest part." She nudged him with her shoulder. "You know Jack, though. He'll find another way back."

"Do you think …" He stopped himself. Gwen waited a moment, let him gather his thoughts. Finally, he asked, "Do you think it's time to stop? With Tosh and Owen gone … and Jack talked to Archie last week and he mentioned closing down Torchwood Two … I wonder why we are still doing this." He looked at her, his blue eyes unusually expressive – sad. "Knowing it'll kill us sooner or later."

Gwen couldn't hold his eyes and looked towards the shelves instead. She saw movement between two of them, Steve restlessly walking down the aisle with Trailer following him eagerly. Directly underneath them, the Minotaur was gone – incinerated – and only the broken machine bits littered the floor. "I do," she admitted. "I wonder sometimes." She sighed. "Then I imagine going back to the police or doing anything else but this and it's … impossible. After what I've seen. Knowing what I know. Besides …" She looked at Ianto. "Jack will never stop, not without a good reason, and I can't imagine letting him do this by himself."

"Sometimes I wish you would leave," Ianto replied, "have a family, a good life."

Gwen took his hand and squeezed gently. "I have a good life and you're part of it. Jack is part of it. Besides, what about you? You could leave as well. Find someone else, have a family."

"It's too late for me," he answered. "Giving up Jack or giving up Torchwood. There's no choice, really."

"Do you love him?"

Ianto turned his head in her direction abruptly. He was clearly surprised by her question, taken aback even. That rarely happened. But Gwen had never asked before and she'd felt this moment was a good one. The question had been running around her mind for a while now. His answer was surprisingly honest and simple – like a lot of his answers were. Ianto wasn't one to talk about himself or his relationship to Jack but he wasn't one to sidestep questions about it, either. "Yes."

"Does he love you?"

He stared at Steve again, probably not wanting to look at her while he answered, "I can only hope so."

xxx

"Nice," Claudia said, eyeing their handiwork with a satisfied grin.

"Yeah," Jack agreed, his hands on his hips, "it is."

They'd built an over-sized staircase out of the crates they had retrieved from the shelves. It had been hard work and taken them quite a while, but in the end, they'd done it. Without the constant threat of the Minotaur, they had used the time to chat about this and that, but even though Jack had talked almost constantly and Claudia had told a lot about herself, she was quite sure that she still hadn't even scratched the surface of the person that was Jack Harkness. She knew that she wasn't a very good judge of character, but she was pretty sure that she could tell when something was off about a person and Jack struck her that way. As if the way he presented himself hid a darker, different man that he didn't want her to know about. Nevertheless, she quite liked him. He was funny and charming and smart and those attributes coupled with his good looks and bright grin made it easy to overlook the shadows in his eyes.

Claudia crossed her arms and looked up at Jack. "So, are we going to do this?"

"We're going home," he answered with a nod.

"I hope so. I don't want to go up there and find that the thread isn't there."

Jack put a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me. It's going to be there."

Claudia took a deep breath and then Jack started to climb the crates and she followed him. They'd been too worried about the crates becoming unstable towards the top, so they'd only built as high as they needed to reach the balcony. As hungry and exhausted as Claudia felt, it was still quite a jump. Jack went first and helped her up, though, and Claudia breathed a sigh of relief when she could lean on the rail and overlook the Warehouse. She turned to the door then, pausing for a moment, scared of the possibility that the thread might not be there. Jack, though, was determined enough for both of them and quickly entered the office. Claudia followed him.

The room was empty, except for a small table in the very middle – and on it was the ball of string.

"Right," Claudia said with a relieved sigh. "Are there gonna be any more nasty surprises or can we just grab it and skedaddle?"

Jack looked at the thread thoughtfully and then used his wristband to check something. "I think we can risk it. The Minotaur was the danger that was supposed to be hard to overcome."

"No trap doors? No spears coming out of nowhere? No huge round rock chasing us?"

Jack laughed. "I don't think so. Take my hand." There was blood on his hand and it drew Claudia's eyes to his still bloody shirt. Softly, Jack said, "Hey, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mention this to anyone on your team."

"They won't be able to miss it."

"I don't mean the blood. I can always find an excuse for the blood. I mean me dying."

She nodded. "Alright then, Kal-El. Deal." Grabbing his hand, they stepped closer to the table. Claudia looked around, expecting _something_. In fact, nothing happened. "Do we just touch it?"

Jack didn't answer, he just pulled her closer and touched it.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: I posted two chapters today, so make sure to read the one before this.**

**Thank you for your reviews. I had fun writing this!**

**15.**

"There has to be another way," Ianto said, crossing his arms and staring at the computer screen. "We just have to find it."

Artie shook his head, brushing a hand through his hair in agitation. "Nothing comes to mind." And he'd tried. They all had, standing crowded around the computer and searching the database for anything – anything at all – that might be able to help them out. The reward for their efforts was the computer mockingly replying _No Matches_ again and again and even now, the red words were blinking on the screen.

Pete said, "We can't just give up. We got you and Gwen back, so there must be a way to get the others back as well."

"Well, I'm listening," Artie replied, sending him a glare. "What's your plan?"

Myka sighed. "Maybe we should contact the Regents."

Artie raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "And tell them what?"

She opened her mouth to answer and closed it again, scrubbing a hand through her hair in frustration.

Artie nodded. "What we know is that this wasn't caused by an artefact. It's alien technology. That's not exactly the Regents' cup of tea."

"If I could make a suggestion," Claudia said from behind them, "you could just turn around."

"Very constructive as always," Artie answered and glowered at the computer again, where _No Matches_ blinked warningly.

Then he paused, as did everyone else, and then, as one, they turned around. Jack and Claudia were standing there, looking at them with big smiles. Jack was setting Ariadne's Thread on the table next to him and put his hands on his hips. Gwen's relieved squeal made everyone jump. She threw herself into Jack's arms, breaking the ban.

Claudia grinned at Artie. "Hi."

Artie heard Steve's muttered "Thank God" and then he was enveloping Claudia in a tight embrace, immediately joined by Myka, Pete and Leena.

Jack, meanwhile had freed himself from Gwen and nodded at Rhys, before he stepped towards Ianto, who was still leaning against the desk next to Artie, looking at Jack as if he couldn't quite believe he was back. As Artie was watching, he pulled himself out of his stupor with a shake of his head. "Ran into trouble, didn't you?" he asked softly. Now, Artie noticed Jack's bloody shirt.

Before he could ask if he was alright, though, Claudia jumped into his arms unexpectedly, making him groan.

"Not even saying 'Hello' to me any more, old man?" she asked.

Artie usually wasn't one for hugs but he thought that he could make an exception here. "Hello, kiddo." From out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jack pull Ianto into a firm kiss and then a tight embrace.

Pete clapped his hands. "This is great. Dinner at home." Myka poked him in the side with her elbow, shaking her head. "What?" Pete asked. "I'm famished."

Claudia turned around to him. "_You're_ famished? I haven't eaten in days."

"It was just over thirty-six hours, really."

"I almost died of thirst."

Steve handed her a bottle of water.

Claudia stared at him and then grinned brightly. "Marry me?"

Jack and Ianto let go of each other. Both of them seemed to be glad that the group's focus had been somewhere else. But now, Myka noticed Jack's shirt. "Are you alright?"

"Just fine," Jack answered. "The Minotaur got me, it looks worse than it is."

"We should get you to hospital, have them take a look," Myka suggested.

"No, really. It's okay. I'm quite used to injuries like that."

"By the way," Claudia interrupted, "I fell off the balcony." The change of topic was unusual, even for her. Claudia didn't like being coddled or calling for attention when she was hurt, be it emotionally or physically. The opposite was the case. But now the others were fully focused on her. Pete sometimes compared their team to a family and Claudia's older siblings now appeared full-force. Myka and Pete's eyes widened in concern and Steve and Leena immediately reacted by looking for injuries.

Artie, knowing that Claudia had bruised nothing but her ego in that fall, noticed Jack and her exchanging a look – he looked grateful, she seemed to wink at him – before she launched into an overly dramatic tale of her jump. Artie also noticed Jack buttoning his coat, but not before Artie got a glimpse through the ripped material at the skin underneath.

The unmarked skin.

Jack met Artie's eyes and Artie quickly looked away. He was glad when Ianto said, "We got a problem, though."

Jack's attention shifted to his lover again and Artie dared look at them while Ianto explained, "We kind of broke something that belongs to UNIT."

"They're gonna be mad as hell," Jack replied with a laugh. He didn't seem overly concerned.

Rhys asked, "Who cares?"

"UNIT will care," Jack answered. "The circumstances won't matter. They'll be happy to have something to complain about."

"Well, then we'll take the blame," Artie replied. "UNIT can personally complain about it to our superior." He smiled. "I'm sure Mrs. Frederick would love to respond to that."

xxx

She found Steve sitting on the balcony, his feet dangling over the edge, and thoughtfully looking out over the Warehouse. Claudia had noticed for a few days now that something was bothering him. In fact, ever since she'd been allowed to accompany Artie on an artefact retrieval. She was a bit worried about him and concerned that he might rethink his decision to join their team and just leave them again. She didn't want that. "Alright?" Claudia asked and sat down on the grating of the balcony, mirroring his pose.

Steve turned his head to look at her. "I should ask you that."

"Aw, you know me better than that, Jinksy. Bouncing back is what I do."

He smiled weakly. "That was quite an experience, huh?"

"Being chased by a mythological being? Yeah, kinda was," Claudia answered. "Learning that aliens exist? Not that much of a surprise, really."

"Torchwood," Steve said with a nod. "I wonder if we're ever going to have something to do with them again."

"I guess we'll see."

For a moment, they didn't talk, Steve staring at the rows of shelves and Claudia trying to figure out a way to talk to him about her concerns.

Finally, he asked softly, "Do you miss them?"

She shrugged. "A bit."

They'd taken the team to the airport after dinner. They'd offered them rooms at the B&B for another night but Jack had been a bit antsy about the base being unattended for so long. So they'd booked the first flight out they could get and should be in the air right now, well on their way home. Where Claudia and Steve should be as well, but he'd left the B&B under the pretence of checking something in the Warehouse and Claudia had followed him.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Steve asked into the silence.

"Sure."

"It's kind of … difficult."

Intrigued, Claudia turned to face him. "Spill."

He didn't do so immediately, mulling things over, probably. Steve was guarded and private, that much, Claudia knew with absolute certainty about him, even though a lot about him was still secret. He raised his head to look at her, his blue eyes deadly serious. "Do you think … I'm part of the team?"

She frowned in confusion. "Do _you_ think you're part of the team?"

"Well, yes, where Artie and you and Leena are concerned but Pete and Myka …"

Claudia needed a moment, but then, she couldn't suppress a smile. "Have they been mean to you?" she asked like a teacher would ask a child.

Steve shook his head. "I don't think it's funny."

"Jinksy … don't be such an idiot! If Myka and Pete wouldn't like you, you wouldn't be here any more."

"They bronzed me," Steve said. "They actually deep-froze and bronzed me! For fun!"

Claudia couldn't help a giggle slipping out. "They bronzed you? Seriously? Artie would have kittens." Bronzing was usually only reserved for the prisoners Warehouse 13 kept, people that were dangerous as well as people with a potential to become dangerous. The bronzing was kind of a cryogenic process, during which the prisoners were encased in a coat of bronze, making them look like statues. Steve stared at her, clearly upset about her reaction, and she sighed. "You know how I always roll my eyes and Artie gets that pained expression on his face whenever Pete compares us to a family?"

"Yes."

"Well, think of Myka and Pete as the older siblings giving you a hard time sometimes. I mean, seriously, my first few months here, whenever I would do something wrong, Artie would ground me. Ground me! Like some child." She shrugged. "That's how things work around here. We all either have no family to speak of or are too far away from them or we don't talk to them for some reason, so we're each other's family." He ducked his head and she took his hand, squeezing gently to get him to look at her again. "So, yes, Pete and Myka are giving you hard time, but in the end, they're just teasing you and they'll always have your back when it counts. And you could easily just give them a hard time too, you know."

Steve closed his eyes and shook his head. He rubbed his eyes, looking wrung-out and tired all of a sudden. "I guess I'm just not used to this." He swallowed and looked at her, giving a helpless smile. "Being close to the people I work with, I mean. That's new. I'm kind of a mess where that's concerned."

Claudia smiled. "You just wait. We'll make a proper screwed up member of our messed up team out of you, yet."

A genuine smile tugged at his lips. "You think I should give Artie a hint about the bronzing incident? Maybe he'll ground them."

Claudia grinned. "Now you're talking like one of us."

xxx

"Wow," Jack said and leaned a bit forwards to be able to see around Gwen's body to Rhys, who was slumped in his seat. "He's out cold."

Gwen raised her eyes from the magazine and looked at her husband. Rhys's head was leaning against the small window of the airplane and he was snoring … loudly. Gwen smiled fondly. "My sexy hero."

Jack laughed softly and leaned back in his seat, relaxing into the cushion. Fingers tightened around his waist, unclenched again and Ianto made a small noise in the back of his throat, but he slept on, using Jack's shoulder as a pillow. Gwen reached out a hand and stretched over the aisle to nudge Jack's leg. "I told you Rhys could handle field work. You wouldn't believe me."

"There wasn't much of a field involved, was there?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. "Lots of sitting around watching, though, so I guess he's perfectly qualified as a General Support."

"Don't let Ianto hear you describe his job like that."

Jack grinned. "Ianto's not General Support."

"Any more," Gwen replied. "He might still take it personally and then it's no sex for you."

"He doesn't punish me by withdrawing sex. He enjoys it too much to do that."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "You're so vain."

Jack looked down at Ianto, who was a warm, heavy weight against his side and smiled. Ianto had fallen asleep as soon as the plane had started to roll, sitting upright. The acceleration during off-take had him looking for something to hold on to and he'd found Jack. Not that Jack minded. Quiet times were rare enough. "He's very exhausted or he wouldn't do this."

"Sleep?"

"Cuddle."

"He's not a cuddler?" Gwen seemed genuinely surprised.

"Not outside of the bedroom, he isn't," Jack answered. He shifted his arm, putting it around Ianto and pulling him as close as possible with the armrest between them. Ianto heaved a sleepy sigh but he didn't wake up.

Gwen had turned back to her magazine, so Jack closed his eyes and relaxed. He turned his head a bit to bury his nose in Ianto's hair and breathed in deeply. For as exhausted as Ianto was, Jack knew it could only be attributed to a severe lack of sleep. Probably none since Jack and Gwen had vanished. "You worry too much about me," he whispered, "but you can rest now." He kissed Ianto's head. "I'm back."

END

02/13


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